To the editor:

The President asked Black Americans to vote for him. “What have you got to lose?” he said, suggesting in his particularly demeaning way that things really couldn’t get much worse for them.

Well, now we know that things could and did get much worse. The latest estimate is that 400,000 Americans will have died from COVID-19 by Jan. 1. Black Americans have died from COVID-19 at 3.5 times the rate of white Americans. What did Black Americans have to lose, Mr. President? Turns out, it was many of their lives.

Six months into this crisis, there’s still no national plan for dealing with the deadly virus that still infects 40,000 more Americans every day. Instead of a coordinated national effort, we still have an incoherent free for all with desperate state and local politicians of various stripes trading their own citizens’ lives to gain the Presidents’ momentary favor and the perks that come with it.

The President doesn’t just ask insulting rhetorical questions. It’s reported that while visiting the grave of 1st Lieutenant Robert Kelly’s in Arlington National cemetery, who was killed in an explosion while serving in Afghanistan, the President said to Robert’s father, then chief of staff, Marine Corp General John Kelly, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” So far, General Kelly has not denied this disturbing report.

The President also routinely asked disparaging questions about the hero status of the late Senator John McCain. McCain, a POW in Vietnam for 5 1/2 years, refused an early release ahead of his fellow prisoners, despite being repeatedly tortured. The President recently cited the Veterans Choice health care program as evidence that he has done more for veterans than the late Sen. McCain ever did. Only two problems with that false assertion: the Veterans Choice program was signed into law by President Obama and the Veterans Choice Bill was written by Senators McCain and Sanders.

On and on it goes, over 20,000 documented lies and mistruths in nearly four years. The old saying goes, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. What have you got to lose this time around? Your health insurance, your social security, your medicare, your life and…yes, even your democracy. I’ll take my chances with Joe Biden and Kampala Harris.

Either everybody counts, or nobody counts.