The novel coronavirus and Covid-19, the illness it causes, have grow to be a world well being challenge. However more and more for President Don
The novel coronavirus and Covid-19, the illness it causes, have grow to be a world well being challenge. However more and more for President Donald Trump, a member of his household, and his administration officers, the virus is being seen as a weapon the president’s enemies hope to make use of towards him as a lot as it’s a public well being concern.
The president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., provided probably the most pointed encapsulation of this view on Friday, when he informed Fox News that Democrats “seemingly hope that it comes right here, and kills thousands and thousands of individuals in order that they may finish Donald Trump’s streak of profitable.”
No elected official, Democratic or in any other case, have mentioned any such factor. Some Democrats — and a few Republicans — have, nonetheless, been essential of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus. Republican Sen. Richard Shelby and Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have each referred to as on the administration to spend extra to fight the virus, for instance.
Regardless of this, on Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence — who’s in control of the White Home’s efforts to cope with the outbreak — defended the president’s son’s remarks as “comprehensible.”
“That is no time for politics. And albeit, I believe that was Don Jr.’s level: that there was some very sturdy rhetoric directed on the president by some members of Congress,” Pence told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “However responding to the form of issues which have been hurled is comprehensible.”
Pence’s protection of the president’s son is only one of a number of examples of how he and Well being and Human Companies Secretary Alex Azar argued on the Sunday morning that Democrats and liberal commentators — not the Trump administration or the best — had been responsible for the politicization of the coronavirus.
When NBC’s Chuck Todd questioned Pence on Meet the Press over politicizing rhetoric on the best, reminiscent of right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh’s declare that Democrats have “weaponized” the coronavirus in addition to Trump Jr.’s inflammatory remarks, Pence declined to sentence them. As a substitute he drew consideration to liberals.
Pence said Trump Jr. was “pushing again” at Trump critics, and that “it’s time for the opposite facet to show down the amount.”
Pence cited Gail Collins’s New York Occasions column entitled, “Let’s name it Trumpvirus” for instance of how “there have been irresponsible voices” on the left criticizing the president. Past strain from Democrats for the administration to hurry and higher fund its response efforts, it’s not clear what “quantity” Pence was referring to.
Trump himself has claimed that criticism of his handling of coronavirus within the US is a part of a Democratic Party “hoax.”
“One in all my folks got here as much as me and mentioned, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too nicely. They couldn’t do it,’” the president mentioned at a rally in South Carolina Friday. “They tried the impeachment hoax. And that is their new hoax.”
At a Saturday press convention, the president made it clear he used the phrase hoax in connection to the coronavirus — which has killed not less than 2,990 people globally and contaminated not less than 22 people in the US — as a result of he felt his administration’s work was being attacked.
When questioned over using the time period hoax on Saturday, Trump said that it referred to “the motion that [Democrats] take to attempt to pin this on someone as a result of we’ve achieved such a superb job.”
He added, “I don’t prefer it when they’re criticizing [government officials], and that’s the hoax.”
When ABC Information anchor George Stephanopoulos requested Azar about Trump’s use of the time period hoax, Sunday Azar deflected.
“He’s speaking in regards to the partisan sniping that we’re seeing, it’s pointless, we don’t must have this made a political challenge,” Azar mentioned. “We’re in a public well being disaster right here, we have to all be banding collectively.”
The partisan sniping appears to be one-sided — however the coronavirus does inarguably name for banding collectively. There may be nonetheless a lot that isn’t identified about it, and new cases within the US are being reported each day. It’s true that the US has far fewer Covid-19 circumstances than different nations, however that doesn’t make the president and his allies’ use of the virus to to assault political rivals any much less worrying — or any much less of a distraction from life-or-death work that must be achieved.