President Donald Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, said Friday on CNN’s “The Lead” that her uncle’s response to the coronavirus pandemic had been “willfully criminal.”
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “The president told Bob Woodward that he knew back in February that this virus could be transmitted through the air and also was deadlier than the flu. But obviously, that’s not what he told the public at the time. He said the flu was deadlier. He dismissed all of the concern from Democrats as a hoax. Their concern wasn’t real. So you’re a psychologist in addition to knowing the president. Why would he leave Americans in the dark? Why would he mislead about this virus knowing that that deception could actually cost people their lives because they did not know how deadly this virus was as he downplayed it for weeks if not months?”
Trump said, “Because he doesn’t care what happens to the American people. And for various reasons, he believed it was to his benefit to keep it secret or to downplay it. Look, we have so much damning information. That quote is damning. The recent news that the post office was going to send out an excess of 650 million masks and the White House torpedoed that idea because they didn’t want to panic people? I mean, we’re getting to the point where this isn’t just negligent, it’s willfully criminal. Imagine how many tens of thousands of Americans would still be with us if we had all been wearing masks provided to us for free by the American government. It’s mind-boggling.”
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