President Donald Trump will seemingly never let an opportunity slip by to trumpet his megalomania. The other day, he held a campaign rally in South Carolina with the apparent express purpose of muddling the waters ahead of the state’s Democratic presidential primary, which was set to take place the following day. He held that rally in the midst of the unfolding of the Coronavirus crisis in the United States and around the world, and during an appearance on ABC this weekend, Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential primary contender Bernie Sanders harshly criticized Trump for his “pathetic” spectacle.
Host George Stephanopoulos asked Sanders about Trump’s own commentary about the candidate, who the president has both dismissed as “Crazy Bernie” and expressed supposed sympathy for because of Democratic elites’ supposed efforts to thwart his candidacy. After insisting that he had no interest whatsoever in finding any sort of common ground with Trump, Sanders tore into the president’s grossly politicizing behavior.
The Senator commented:
‘In the midst of this Coronavirus, a real threat to our country and the world — all over the world, governments are trying to figure out how they can deal with this crisis — do you know where Donald Trump was the other day? He was in South Carolina trying to undermine the Democratic primary. How pathetic is it that in the midst of an international healthcare crisis, you have a president running into South Carolina, trying to steal some media attention from Democrats?’
Watch:
Bernie Sanders slams Trump amid coronavirus outbreak: “How pathetic is it that in the midst of an international health care crisis, you’ve got a president running into South Carolina trying to steal some media attention away from Democrats.” https://t.co/wGwD0uWZ3e pic.twitter.com/cUE3T6Ts9u
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 1, 2020
It’s true — his Friday South Carolina rally came very shortly after the first community-spread case of the virus was reported in the United States. That case may have been connected to a quarantine attempt in the area that the Trump administration bungled, and in the time since, more cases have popped up — and there’s been one death in the U.S. from the illness.
Trump actually addressed the Coronavirus situation at his South Carolina rally. He called the situation Democrats” “new hoax” that they’d try to use to drag his name through the mud. He eventually clarified that he was referring to Democrats’ reactions to the illness rather than the illness itself as the supposed “hoax,” but that’s just nonsense, although he’s used the line before.
On Twitter, Trump railed:
‘Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape!’
Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape! @CDCgov…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2020
It’s not a hoax. Are those who’ve died from the virus in on the hoax too? Is the World Health Organization part of the deep state? More directly, is there a bottom of the barrel that Trump and his cronies won’t scrape?
Democrats are continuing to slog it out through their presidential primary meant to settle on a candidate to take on Trump. Heading into Super Tuesday this week, when state after state will vote at the same time, Bernie Sanders remains the frontrunner with Joe Biden trailing close behind.
