Harris blasts Trump’s response to COVID-19: ‘They knew what was happening, and they didn’t tell you’

Yahoo News Video

Kamala Harris on Wednesday blasted the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Video Transcript

KAMALA HARRIS: American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country.

And here are the facts. 210,000 dead people in our country in just the last several months. Over 7 million people who have contracted this disease. One in five businesses closed.

We're looking at frontline workers who have been treated like sacrificial workers. We are looking at over 30 million people who, in the last several months, had to file for unemployment.

And here's the thing. On January 28, the vice president and the president were informed about the nature of this pandemic. They were informed that it's lethal in consequence, that it is airborne, that it will affect young people, and that it would be contracted because it is airborne. And they knew what was happening and they didn't tell you.

Can you imagine if you knew on January 28, as opposed to March 13, what they knew, what you might have done to prepare? They knew and they covered up. The president said it was a hoax. They minimized the seriousness of it. The president said you're on one side of his ledger if you wear a mask, you're on the other side of his ledger if you don't.

And in spite of all of that, today they still don't have a plan. They still don't have a plan.

Well, Joe Biden does. And our plan is about what we need to do around a national strategy for contact tracing, for testing, for administration of the vaccine and making sure that it will be free for all. That is the plan that Joe Biden has and that I have, knowing that we have to get a hold of what has been going on and we need to save our country. And Joe Biden is the best leader to do that.

And frankly, this administration has forfeited--

SUSAN PAGE: Thank you

KAMALA HARRIS: --their right to re-election based on this.

SUSAN PAGE: Thank you, Senator Harris.