At a campaign rally in South Carolina at the end of February, President Donald Trump proclaimed that concern over the Coronavirus was a hoax. (It wasn’t.) On numerous other occasions throughout those early weeks of the virus’s spread in the U.S., Trump dished out claims like that the virus would disappear “like a miracle” from the U.S., which has not proven true — at all. Stunningly, even after these dismissals, which included the president even suggesting that the Coronavirus was on par with the common flu, Vice President Mike Pence lied this week on CNN that Trump has always taken the Coronavirus seriously.
He definitely has not! We can all see the tapes. And it’s not just a matter of rhetoric — if Trump had been better prepared prior to the onslaught of the worst of the crisis, authorities could have been better equipped to stem the increasing tide of Coronavirus cases and deaths in the U.S.
None of that stopped Pence. He proclaimed to CNN host Wolf Blitzer:
‘I don’t believe that the president has ever belittled the threat of this virus… I think he’s expressed gratitude and confidence to health care workers in this country, and the American people can be assured that President Trump is going to continue to be confident that we will meet this moment.’
Americans don’t need Pence to stand on the national stage and lavish praise on Trump like he’s some messiah who’s come to save the world. Over 4,600 Americans have died from the Coronavirus, and we’re supposed to trust this pompous shill to lead the federal government’s Coronavirus response? Seriously?
Amidst his rant, Blitzer tried to get a word in, and once the Vice President had attempted to move on, the host did. He noted that Trump “was saying at one point it wasn’t as bad as the regular flu,” which is, of course, flatly incorrect on the president’s part. Pence responded by insisting that Trump is “a leader who knows that we will get through this.”
Watch below:
Pence on Trump’s ludicrous claims about coronavirus going away on its own: “The president is an optimistic person.” pic.twitter.com/30W6sRkNpy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 1, 2020
