One day after the Ohio State Buckeyes would have played their first football game of the season, the Michigan and Ohio Democratic Parties held a virtual news conference today with College Democrats. On the call, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell and Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein were joined by College Democrats President Matthew Nowling and students from the University of Michigan and The Ohio State University to highlight how Donald Trump’s reckless and chaotic response to the coronavirus crisis has hurt one of college football’s great rivalries and devastated Ann Arbor and Columbus small businesses.
“If you’re from the Midwest, you love your football,” said Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. “I like football more than I like politics, and we don’t have a season this fall. The way that Covid has been handled since the very beginning is determining what’s been happening in this country. We don’t have any leadership in the White House and now we’re looking at a world that’s upside down and the Big 10 and college football are one of the ramifications. This hurts Ann Arbor, this hurts the surrounding towns and our small businesses. I miss football, I’d rather be in the Big House than campaigning, but we have to do what’s right and keep everybody safe. We should not be playing politics with this issue, we should never play games with the Big 10.”
“The reality at the end of the day is the president has failed to recognize and appreciate the severity of the coronavirus and the spread of COVID-19 in our community,” said Columbus City Attorney Zack Klein. “And as a result, people are losing jobs, people are dying, people are getting sick, but also our economy is failing and we have no football. All of that is because of failed presidential leadership. The economy is COVID and COVID is the economy. Until the President of the United States recognizes it for what it’s worth and takes it seriously, recognizes that it’s not a hoax, that we should be wearing masks, and putting together a national comprehensive plan, not only are we not going to have football, we’re not going to be able to have the economic rebound for the families that deserve it that want to put food on their table for their kids.
“I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio and am an ardent Ohio State fan,” said College Democrats President Matthew Nowling. “Our rivalry will continue after we fire Donald Trump in the fall and this virus ends, but it didn’t have to be this bad. Trump left states to fend for themselves and tweeted out conspiracy theories and this ineffective leadership has hurt students on college campuses. If wwe had leadership who listened to the science, I could have been gearing up to tailgate tomorrow instead of reading about the terrible toll this virus has had on our country.”
“As a fourth year Ohio State student and lifelong Ohioan, it’s hard to imagine a fall without football,” said Ohio State University Student Becca Young. “Some of my favorite college memories come from watching games in the Shoe with all my friends and I can’t help but wonder if I could have those memories again if we had real leadership in the White House. Donald Trump always looks for someone else to blame, but there’s no one else to blame but him. The fact that there’s no football right now is not the fault of the Big 10, it’s the fault of Donald Trump.”
“Donald Trump had six months to fix this crisis and come up with a plan, but instead he has ignored warnings, downplayed the threat Covid-19 poses,” said University of Michigan student Ben Schuster. “Now, because of this failure, my senior year has been thrown into chaos. Trump says he’s doing something to get football back, but he isn’t. Like always, he’s tweeting demands with no follow through. My best friend goes to Ohio State— when we left for college, we promised each other we would go to every Michigan-OSU game. We’ve done that for the last three years and even though Michigan has lost every time, it’s always a highlight of my year. That’s something we can’t do now. I can’t help but think things didn’t have to be this bad. If we had real national leadership who took this seriously from the beginning, we might not have gotten to this point.”
