‘I Don’t Know Why We’re Doing This’: Democrat Coronavirus Hearing Beset by Technical Difficulties

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 29: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks during a news
Sarah Silbiger/Getty
Sean Moran

Technical difficulties beset the House Democrats’ hearing Friday called to investigate the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus.

House Democrats created a select committee to investigate the government response to the coronavirus outbreak. Democrats released the report on Friday, which claimed Trump’s response was “among the worst failures of leadership in American history.”

They also called it an “American fiasco.”

However, the committee’s effort to criticize the Trump administration’s coronavirus response was sidelined by technical difficulties.

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said, “I don’t know why we’re doing this.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, “I’ve been on a for a long time … I could have started a long time ago … Is the press on the line? And they’re hearing all this, so that’s nice.”

The coronavirus report slammed Trump for allegedly misleading the country about the pandemic, the lack of a national plan to track, test, treat, and contain the coronavirus.

The report said:

President Trump’s decision to mislead the public about the severity of the crisis, his failure to listen to scientists about how to keep Americans healthy, and his refusal to implement a coordinated national plan to stop the coronavirus have all contributed to devastating results: more than 227,000 Americans dead, more than 8.8 million Americans infected, and a dangerous virus that continues to spread out of control nine months after it reached our nation’s shores.

House Republican Whip and Select Committee Ranking Member Steve Scalise (R-LA) issued a statement on Friday slamming the Democrats for ignoring Trump’s efforts to mitigate the coronavirus’s effects successfully.

Scalise and committee Republicans contended:

  1. China lied about the dangers of the coronavirus, hoarded personal protective equipment (PPE) while allowing Chinese nationals, including those from the Wuhan region, to travel.
  2. The Trump administration responded quickly to the coronavirus outbreak.
  3. Trump’s decisions saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
  4. The Trump administration led a historic effort to produce PPE, increasing testing, reduce fatalities, and work to create a vaccine.
  5. Democrat governors ignored guidance from the Trump administration and health experts and sent coronavirus patients to nursing homes, which resulted in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths.

Scalise said:

Democrats’ latest partisan report issued just days before the election underscores how they’ve used the Select Subcommittee to attack President Trump and politicize the pandemic to the detriment of the American people. Democrats’ scare tactics about schools reopening harm children’s learning and literacy. Their fear mongering on vaccine development and therapeutics undermines public health. And their support for more lockdowns, which are not supported by thousands of doctors and scientists, would destroy jobs and our economy.
 Contrary to the Democrats’ baseless claims, the facts clearly show that President Trump’s leadership during this unprecedented pandemic has our country on a path to a full recovery. From testing to vaccine development to safely reopening our economy and schools, President Trump followed the science to develop national plans that have been rapidly implemented to address an ever-changing situation. President Trump and Republicans are committed to defeating COVID-19 and fully restoring the greatest economy in the world.
He added, “Unfortunately, Democrats’ continued partisanship on this issue shows that they are only committed to defeating President Trump.”

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.

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