US politician Nancy Pelosi repeatedly called the coronavirus the “Trump virus” on Tuesday as she slammed President Donald Trump’s disastrous handling of the pandemic.
Appearing on CNN’s “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer, Pelosi said Trump — who in his earlier coronavirus briefing, his first since April, finally urged people to wear face masks and admitted the crisis will “get worse before it gets better” — appeared to have “recognised the mistakes that he has made by now embracing mask-wearing and the recognition this is not a hoax.”
“It is a pandemic that has gotten worse before it will get better because of his inaction,” the speaker continued. “And in fact, clearly, it is the Trump virus.”
Blitzer asked Pelosi what she meant with the turn of phrase.
“The Trump virus. If he had said months ago ‘Let’s wear masks, let’s socially distance instead of having rallies’ and political whatever they were, then more people would have followed his lead,” Pelosi replied. “He’s the president of the United States.”
Pelosi suggested Trump’s bad example of refusing to cover his face in public had made it “like a manhood thing not to wear a mask,” describing his coronavirus briefing as “weird” because it “should be about science and that is something the president has ignored.”
“A good deal of what we have suffered is clearly the Trump virus,” she added.
Blitzer asked Pelosi to confirm whether she believed thousands of Americans had unnecessarily died because of the Trump administration’s botched response to the public health crisis.
“Yes, that’s what I am saying. I think it’s clearly evident,” she responded.
“If it’s important to wear a mask now, it would have been important to wear it in March instead of telling us by April we’d have all been going to church together,” she added.
Check out Pelosi’s comments here: