The United States of America is experiencing its worst pandemic since 1917, but this time the president is solely concerned with winning an election and will stop at nothing, not even disinformation in the face of 156,000 American deaths, to rally supporters against everyone else.
This clip is unreal.
When a reporter asked Donald Trump why the US has seen so many COVID-19 deaths, he said, “Hold it, fake news CNN."
He then falsely implied that the coronavirus “was released by China" and blamed Democratic mayors and governors for the spread in the US. pic.twitter.com/JKmQ01FGfs
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) August 3, 2020
On Monday, CNN’s Jim Acosta, who has often been a target of Donald Trump’s because of his affiliation with CNN, asked the president a question about the biggest issue facing the country today: COVID-19. The issue is not a political one, the virus affects Republicans and Democrats alike. When Acosta mentioned those deaths, however, Trump berated him and called him, once again, “fake news.”
‘Fake news CNN. Hold it, we have done a great job in this country. We haven’t been given enough, not me, Vice President Pence, the task force have not been given the kind of credit.’
Trump has pushed this narrative since Americans first found out about the virus, although the response by the Trump administration has been one of the worst of any country. Eager to reopen the economy in order to have good numbers ahead of the November election, that reopening came too soon and the United States is experiencing a surge that’s breaking record numbers.
The Financial Times reports that:
‘New infections have risen sharply in many US states in recent weeks, prompting state governments and businesses to slow their easing of lockdown measures. Twenty-five states reported record seven-day averages in new confirmed cases in the week to July 7, FT analysis of data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project shows.’
“Slow the testing down, please.” – @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/xWYvodknE5
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 26, 2020
The president also said again that we only know there are as many cases of the virus in the U.S. because of the much higher rate of testing this country does, but that doesn’t hold true in statistics regarding the testing rates in places like South Korea or Australia. No matter how Trump tries to spin it, the response was his responsibility to manage and his failure today.
‘Since mid-March, lockdowns and social distancing procedures have been largely managed on a state-by-state basis. President Trump urged governors to use their latitude over reopenings, and several had raced to lift restrictionson business before meeting CDC guidelines on declining case counts as well as the need for widespread testing and contact tracers. But the majority are taking a phased approach to reopening.’
Featured image screenshot via YouTube