[COVID-19\Trump\”Rage”]
Sen. Coons: “President Trump has spent much of the last year misleading and lying to the American people about the serious risks to their lives…Millions of Americans believed President Trump as he told them that the virus would not harm them.”
Photo: YouTube
A growing number of Democratic Congressmembers are denouncing Donald Trump for downplaying the deadly nature of COVID-19, in the continuing fallout from veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s new book “Rage,” along with damning interview tape recordings.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement:
“The President’s own words spell out the devastating truth: Trump was fully aware of the catastrophic nature of the coronavirus but hid the facts and refused to take the threat seriously, leaving our entire country exposed and unprepared.
“More than six million Americans have been infected, 190,000 have died and tens of millions are jobless and at risk of hunger and homelessness. So much of this pain could have been avoided, but President Trump refused to tell the truth or to act to protect the American people. The horrifying toll of Trump’s deadly disinformation and negligence in the lives of grieving families and to our economy is a historic national tragedy.
“Even now, the President still refuses to listen to science and take the action necessary to crush the virus and protect the lives and livelihoods of the American people. We must have a science-based strategic plan to defeat the coronavirus, as advanced in the Heroes Act that Senate Republicans continue to block.”
New York Rep. Brian Higgins also denounced Trump COVID-19 lies saying:
“As COVID-19 began its assault on Americans’ lives, President Trump knew of its severity. He secretly stated as much to Bob Woodward.
“But publicly the President downplayed the very dangers he knew Americans faced.
“While his Administration stonewalls Congressional oversight, the President seems free to conduct many interviews that totally contradict things he tells the American public and reveal how little regard he has for the impact his job has on the lives of those he was elected to serve. Put simply: the President lies. With impunity. And these lies are costing American lives.
“Nearly 4 years along, we’ve come to expect this type of egregious behavior from this chaotic and unprepared President — but we cannot willingly accept it. We must demand better. The President lied and because of it Americans died – 190,478 people and counting, gone forever.”
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro responded this way:
“The President’s decision to willfully mislead the American people regarding the severity of COVID-19 to avoid a ‘panic’ and his abject failure to lead during this pandemic has led to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths with no end in sight. Time and again we have asked the President and his complicit administration to provide the nation with plans to increase the supply of PPE, to safely develop and distribute a vaccine, and to ensure regular testing, and the answers we receive are either incomplete or inadequate, or we are met with silence.
“Congress has provided trillions of dollars to help the American people as they struggle to keep their small businesses afloat, to provide unemployment benefits when they lost their job because of the pandemic, ensure health care providers kept their doors open, and invest in the research and development of a vaccine that will help our country get back to a more routine way of life.
“The President who knew the risk COVID-19 posed to the country is now rushing to get a vaccine out before the November 3rd election – safety and efficacy ignored. In light of Astra Zeneca’s announcement that their Phase III has been put on hold indefinitely due to a suspected serious adverse reaction, we cannot rush the development of a vaccine. I applaud the pharmaceutical companies that have pledged they will not seek approval or an emergency use authorization until safety and efficacy are demonstrated through a Phase III clinical study that meets the FDA regulatory requirements.
“However, these pharmaceutical companies should not have had to make this pledge in the first place – the President should not be putting these companies in a position that would undercut the FDA’s gold standard. At the end of the day, despite the significant government investment in COVID-19 vaccine candidates, the pharmaceutical companies’ sole responsibility is to their shareholders. Since taxpayer funding has helped these trials get off the ground, it is imperative that Americans are assured the vaccine is safe and effective, and they know when they and their loved ones can expect to receive a vaccine.”
Delaware Senator Chris Coons said the following:
“Despite knowing just how deadly and dangerous the coronavirus is, President Trump has spent much of the last year misleading and lying to the American people about the serious risks to their lives and the lives of their loved ones. That is unconscionable.
“Millions of Americans believed President Trump as he told them that the virus would not harm them, that the pandemic was under control, and that public health experts were wrong about this deadly virus. As a result, nearly two hundred thousand Americans are dead and millions more are out of work, and it didn’t have to be this bad. Above all, we need our president to be honest with the American people and look out for our health and safety, but in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic, President Trump has failed to live up to both of those basic responsibilities.”
