Kalamazoo Times

As the author of a newly released book that sharply criticizes much of the recent response to the COVID-19 pandemic, author Jason Vines remains a supporter of President Donald Trump and said that the response to the two parties’ conventions demonstrates that Republicans are much more enthusiastic about the upcoming election than Democrats.

Vines appeared on WJR's "The Paul W. Smith Show," where the host introduced him as a longtime marketing and public affairs expert. He recently released a book called “Disinfect This: Stupidity, Hypocrisy and Lies in a Pandemic on the Road to the 2020 Presidential Election.”

Vines said the title was inspired by the incident in April when an offhand comment from Trump about disinfectant was blown out of proportion and presented by the media as if Trump were telling people to inject themselves with bleach.

"No, he wasn’t doing that. He was looking at doctors and saying, ‘Could we come up with something?’” Vines told Smith. “He was musing.”

Yet, even within recent weeks, Vines said he has heard Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden claim that Trump told people to misuse disinfectants.

Vines said that even incidents where people had misused cleaning products as a protectant against the coronavirus long before Trump’s comments were later brought up by Trump’s critics and blamed on him.

Incidents such as those were a significant inspiration for his book, Vines said.

"I just expose all the lies and hypocrisy I've seen in the months of April, May and June during this pandemic,” Vines told Smith.

But Vines said that his criticisms are by no means reserved for one side of the political aisle.

"I kind of take on everybody,” Vines told Smith. “I mean, there’s one section, the chapter called, ‘Some Republicans Go Full Stupid' -- the people that were carrying weapons in Lansing and Confederate flags, that made me sick to my stomach. They hurt the cause of the Republican party.”

But there were plenty of bad moments for all sides, he said.

"There’s enough stupidity to go around that it can fill a book, which I did,” Vines told Smith.