Eight months and 200,000 lives later, Donald Trump is still telling his supporters lies about COVID-19 even after having been caught on tape saying something entirely different. These aren’t lies about a scandal or how well a policy works; these are lies about a virus that has so far killed more Americans than died in the Vietnam War, September 11, 2001, and World War I combined.
McEnany twists herself into a knot trying to defend Trump's lie that coronavirus "affects virtually nobody" pic.twitter.com/aBHdKRmJRE
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2020
On Monday night, the president of the United States told his followers that COVID-19 wasn’t as much of a threat as they had been told, saying that, among young people, there are places where it affects “virtually nobody.” In fact, his full quote is:
‘It affects elderly people. Elderly people with heart problems and other problems. If they have other problems, that’s what it really affects. That’s it.
‘You know, in some states, thousands of people, nobody young [dies]. Below the age of 18, like, nobody. They have a strong immune system, who knows. You look — take your hat off to the young, because they have a hell of an immune system. But it affects virtually nobody. It’s an amazing thing.
‘By the way, open your schools, everybody. Open your schools.’
"It affects virtually nobody," Trump says of the coronavirus, which has now killed 200,000 Americans and counting pic.twitter.com/qHrZvUWNhX
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2020
On Tuesday, CNN reporter Jim Acosta held White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s feet to the fire over those claims, asking why Trump would continue to lie to his supporters. McEnany tried to say that Acosta was taking Trump out of context, that he had only meant among young people, and that there are some states with zero pediatric COVID-19 deaths.
This ignores so much. Many children have died from COVID-19 and any child who contracts the virus potentially could die, as well. A child does not have to die from the virus to be affected by it, though. Children can become sick from the coronavirus and be left with lifelong health problems. Some children don’t even show symptoms, but they can still carry the virus and pass it to others, including more vulnerable and high-risk people in their homes.
Trump tonight: “It affects virtually nobody.” https://t.co/gfRRjubJQW
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) September 22, 2020
The president and his communications team can spin the numbers however they like, but the truth boils down to false promises and a downplaying of the virus by a president who’s not willing to sacrifice himself politically to get the truth to the American people. 200,000 families have paid the price for Trump’s selfishness.
“It affects virtually nobody”: Trump erases coronavirus victims as US death toll hits 200,000 https://t.co/Nt0YQjYhpM
— Vox (@voxdotcom) September 22, 2020
Featured image screenshot via Twitter video