The Spirit Best Suited for this Crisis is the American Spirit

On this edition of The Cats Roundtable, the world shifts to face a new normal as the coronavirus spreads. Cities across the U.S. are shutting down services, while entire states issued shelter-in-place orders to combat the growing number of coronavirus cases.

The attempts to stem the spread of the coronavirus continued to ripple through the stock market, with coronavirus fears leading to one of the worst weeks on Wall Street in recent decades.

In Washington, D.C., lawmakers and the administration plan to vote on a trillion dollar financial-aid bill this Monday.

Congressman Peter King joined The Cats Roundtable to discuss how the U.S. is adapting in the face of the pandemic, why Americans are up to the challenge at hand, and what lies ahead for the U.S. if it meets the demands.

While he is confident the U.S. can contain the virus, King told The Cats Roundtable that it requires cooperation on all levels of society.

“People have to do what they’re asked to do,” he said. “And they have to realize that this is the unknown.”

He explained the magnitude of the mobilization to the coronavirus needs to compare with that of other crises in U.S. history, including WWII, or 9/11.

“No country in the world has the infrastructure, the ingenuity, or the sense or drive that we have as Americans,” he said. “We have to get that true American spirit back and working, and I think we’re on the way to it.”

He implored lawmakers to set down partisanship, and praised the growing coordination between the White House and Democratic governors to take on the outbreaks in states like New York and California.

“Let’s stand together. When this is all over, there’s plenty of time for politics to begin again.”

While Americans are ready to step up to crisis, they need the assurance they can beat what they face.

“They want to know who the enemy is,” King explained, adding that the enemy, such as this virus, is especially hard to imagine, but that Americans are rising to the challenge.

“We have all hands on deck,” he told The Cats Roundtable. “Everyone who should be working hard is working hard.”

While it’s everyday Americans’ responsibility to practice social-distance and take measures to reduce the risk to the most vulnerable, King believes the government needs to help Americans ride out the crisis, and urged listeners that the “American spirit” is best found in the face of crisis.

King spurned China for its response to the coronavirus and failing to allow international teams to come in and “get this thing under control.”

“If China had right up front done what it should have done as a responsible world citizen, we would not be in this position today.”

The coronavirus has spread out from China, disrupting life around the globe. King supported Trump’s decision to put up travel limitations early on to stem the virus, and believes the President’s prescience of the situation will continue to contain the virus.

“If we stand together, and work together and keep going forward, we’re going to come out of this in the end stronger than when we started.”