Trump Called Coronavirus Response Criticisms a 'New Hoax' From Democrats

Gabrielle Bruney
·2 min read
Photo credit: Anadolu Agency - Getty Images
Photo credit: Anadolu Agency - Getty Images

From Esquire

During his South Carolina rally Friday night, President Trump claimed that concern over the very real coronavirus outbreak is a "new hoax" from his Democratic rivals.

"One of my people came up to me and said, 'Mr. President they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well,'" said Trump. "'They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. And this is their new hoax.'"

Amid ongoing concerns over the virus and with the stock market—long one Trump's preferred yardsticks for his performance—in free-fall, Trump and his allies have sought to downplay the severity of the global coronavirus outbreak and frame news coverage of the illness as an attack on the administration.

In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Committee Friday, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney described the media coverage devoted to the coronavirus as an attempt to destroy Trump. "The reason you’re seeing so much attention to it today is that they think this is going to be the thing that brings down the president," said Mulvaney. "That’s what this is all about." Earlier in the week, newly-minted Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Rush Limbaugh falsely dismissed the illness as a variant of the "common cold."

On Friday evening, former Obama administration "Ebola czar" Ronald Klain appeared on MSNBC and CNN to offer his assessment of the Trump administration's coronavirus response. "When we found out that this virus was spreading widely in China in December, in January, we should have rapidly accelerated the preparation and deployment of test kits in the US," said Klain. "We’re just behind on producing the tests, we’re behind on getting them approved, we’re behind on getting them distributed—this should have been Job One of the coronavirus task force."

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