At a South Carolina rally on the eve of the Democratic primary, the president also sought to manage expectations about the White House’s response to the outbreak.
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — President Donald Trump on Friday night tried to cast the global outbreak of the coronavirus as a liberal conspiracy intended to undermine his first term, lumping it alongside impeachment and the Mueller investigation.
He blamed the press for acting hysterically about the virus, which has now spread to China, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Italy and the U.S, and he downplayed its dangers, saying against expert opinion it was on par with the flu.
“The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. They’re politicizing it,” he said. “They don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa. No, they can’t. They can’t count their votes. One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That did not work out too well. They could not do it. They tried the impeachment hoax.”
Then Trump called the coronavirus “their new hoax.”
Trump’s comments came as the White House has struggled to adequately respond to and contain the coronavirus’s increasingly sweeping path. At the rally — held here on the eve of the Democratic primary in South Carolina — he sought to manage Americans’ expectations about the White House’s ability to fight it.
By undermining the news reporting on the virus and by trying to hold liberals responsible for a potential public health crisis that has little to do with politics, Trump did what he often does best: He sought to deflect blame at a time when many Americans sought leadership and scientific facts.
After Trump had downplayed the risks of coronavirus, he reassured supporters that the White House was “magnificently organized” in fighting it. In fact, Trump’s administration spent the week jockeying among themselves to lead the response, while the stock market tumbled with losses not seen since the global financial recession. White House officials and the president grew so concerned this week that Trump put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the response effort, swapping out his beleaguered health secretary.
None of that came up on Friday night, as Trump trash-talked his Democratic opponents in 2020 and characterized the coronavirus as the latest issue touching on border security.
“Whether it is the virus that we’re talking about or many other public health threats, the Democrat policy of open borders is a direct threat to the health and well-being of all Americans. Now, you see it with the coronavirus. You see it. You see it with the coronavirus. You see that. When you have this virus or any other virus or any other problem coming in, it’s not the only thing that comes in through the border and we are setting records now at the order,” Trump said.
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President Trump on Friday night tried to cast the global outbreak of the coronavirus as a liberal conspiracy intended to undermine his first term, lumping it alongside impeachment and the Mueller investigation https://t.co/2nQ26piuhJ
— POLITICO (@politico) February 29, 2020
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) February 29, 2020
What in the heck do the borders have to do with this? Acts of God have no boundaries. I have not heard of anyone in the US contracting this disease from an illegal immigrant. There is no way to stop this kind of thing. You can only deal with it as best you can. People aren’t stupid. Putting Pence in charge to control information & lie to the American public isn’t going to fool people who see their neighbors, co-workers and family members getting sick. Trump has no idea what can happen when an angry mob seeing death chasing behind them and turns on those they feel are responsible. Do Trump and his syncophants think that they are immune? Trump lives in a petri dish of international travelers and so does everyone going in and out of federal buildings. We already have one whistleblower exposing the ineptitude in which evacuees from China were handled here in the US. Apalling. We already know that at least one federal worker ignored quarantine and went back to work after returning from China. Maybe God will have mercy on their dark empty souls because the American public will not. This is something that Trump can not lie or spin his way out of. He is not in control of this. God is. And if I were Trump I’d be very worried right now about that.
There was a time in this country when, in a crisis, people put aside their differences and worked together to make things better. This country hasn’t seen such cooperation since World War II and since Obama, it has become worse. Now every crisis or disaster is a political football to be tossed around. Trump and the Democrats both are using the coronavirus to point fingers at each other instead of working together. So while they are arguing and using this virus for personal and political gain, people are getting sicker, the stock market is tanking and we are headed for an apocalypse.
And there has been a fatality reported in Washington State. So I guess this virus is no hoax.
here's the video from last night: https://t.co/TjJalPyXVN
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 29, 2020
I will say Pence sounded like a real leader at today’s press conference. At least he didnt call this outbreak a hoax. Far more articulate than the dummy-in-chief.
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