Maxine Waters: Trump's an 'Incompetent Idiot,' Must 'Pray for Forgiveness'

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) on Monday went on a social media tirade against President Donald Trump over his administration’s response to the spread of the Chinese coronavirus in the United States, describing him as an “incompetent idiot” and demanded that he pray for forgiveness.

“Trump, stop congratulating yourself! You’re a failure & you’ve mishandled this #COVID19 disaster! You’re not knowledgeable & you don’t know more than experts & generals,” Waters, who serves as chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, wrote on Twitter. “Your ignorance & incompetence are appalling & you continue to demonstrate that every time you open your mouth!”

“Trump, you incompetent idiot! You sent 18 tons of PPE to China early but ignored warnings & called COVID19 concerns a hoax. You’ve endangered doctors, nurses, aids, [sic] orderlies, & janitors – all risking their lives to save ours. Pray 4 forgiveness for the harm that you’re causing!” she added.

Waters’ comments come after she accused President Trump on Sunday of ignoring early warnings of the pandemic.

“As you know, we had an office of pandemic affairs basically in the office of the president that was shut down, closed down, not funded by the president of the United States,” the California Democrat told MSNBC host Joy Reid. “That’s the kind of office that does the planning, that anticipates, that makes sure that supplies and everything that’s needed can be readily available when you have this kind of disaster. And so even though we didn’t have that kind of planning in addition to that, the early notifications I’m told were ignored.”

Despite Waters’ accusations, the Trump administration has made significant progress in boosting testing nationwide and launched a public-private partnership called “Project Airbridge” in an effort expedite the delivery of medical supplies to the U.S. On Sunday, the first flight landed in New York carrying 130,000 N95 masks, 1.8 million face masks and gowns, and over 10.3 million gloves.

Additionally, Ford announced on Monday that it will partner with GE to build 50,000 ventilators 100 days. White House Defense Production Act Coordinator Peter Navarro lauded the announcement. “Just as Ford in the last century moved its manufacturing might seamlessly from auto to tank production during World War II, the Ford team is working with GE Healthcare to use its awesome engineering and manufacturing capabilities to voluntarily help this nation solve one of its most pressing problems. We salute that effort and look forward to the first ventilators rolling off the Michigan assembly line in record time – and we’ll be there to salute that milestone,” Navarro said in a statement.

As of Tuesday morning, the U.S. has 164, 719 coronavirus cases and 3,170 deaths, according to data via John Hopkins University.