Friday on CNN’s “The Lead,” anchor Jake Tapper accused the Trump administration of lying to the American people about the coronavirus.
Tapper said, “The coronavirus crisis is surge surging in two-thirds of the United States. You might not know that if you listen to the Trump White House, which today minimized the fact that there is a looming disaster in several states. The president and vice president continue to feed the American people lies about the state of this pandemic and their administration’s failures to rise to the moment. This map tells the story. Thirty-two states are battling an increase in cases. Eleven states are flat. Only seven states are showing a decline. With Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert warning today that the United States is at a crossroads and Americans can choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution. Unfortunately, President Trump and Vice President Pence seem to be opting to be part of the problem. Trump is refusing to set an example and wear a mask in public. He continues to hold rallies with no social distancing. Rallies that are veritable Petri dishes. Today at the first coronavirus task force briefing in two months, the vice president made statements to the American people that simply do not square with the facts. Pence insisted that states are opening safely and responsibly when the fact is very few states adhered to the White House’s own guidelines for reopening. Medical data clearly proves that it was a mistake. Then Mr. Pence said this.”
In a clip, Pence said, “The reality is we’re in a much better place with the efforts President Trump mobilized at the federal level. We slowed the spread. We flattened the curve. We saved lives.”
Tapper continued, “Now it’s true that things might be better today than weeks ago when 2,000 Americans were dying from COVID-19 every single day, but the curve has not flattened. The opposite is true. Just look at the chart of new cases. Yesterday, the United States reported more than 37,000 new confirmed infections of the Novel Coronavirus virus. That’s the highest one-day increase ever. And the curve, as you can see on the graph, is rising again. It has been brought down a little, and then it unflattened and is going north. The United States, with less than 5% of the world’s population, has a quarter of the world’s death due to coronavirus per official numbers. It did not have to be this way.”
He added, “There remains no aggressive or effective nationwide surveillance testing and contact tracing program in the United States. Now we’re learning there are divisions within the White House task force about how they proceed with testing program that is in place. To reiterate, the response has not been a success. It has been one of the least successful responses in the entire world. President Trump’s desire for this pandemic to be over does not make it over. In fact, the lies, including the projections we heard today of this false sense of security, these lies could likely make the pandemic even worse.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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