New Digital Ad Highlights Deadly Consequences of Trump Decision to Deliberately Downplay Severity of Virus & Misled Americans After Admitting in Recording He Knew of Danger
Watch the New Digital Ad Here
Today, Protect Our Care’s Coronavirus War Room released a new digital ad highlighting the deadly consequences of Donald Trump’s choice to lie to the American people by deliberately downplaying the coronavirus even after admitting in a recorded interview with Bob Woodward that he understood the danger.
For months, Donald Trump deceptively underplayed the severity of the virus, claiming it was no worse than the flu, that it would magically disappear or didn’t pose a threat to most people who were infected. As a result, he refused to take decisive action demanded by the experts and nearly seven months later we are close to 200,000 deaths, more than 6 million infections, and millions more struggling with the catastrophic economic impact.
Full transcript of the ad:
Donald Trump (March 19, Woodward Interview): “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down.
Donald Trump (February 10): “The virus that we’re talking about having to do, you know a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat.”
Donald Trump (February 26): “But we have it so well under control … I mean view this the same way as the flu. When someone sneezes, I mean, I try and bail out as much as possible.”
Donald Trump (February 29): “And this is their new hoax!”
Donald Trump (February 29): “If you’re healthy, you will probably go through a process and you’ll be fine.”
Donald Trump (March 27): Germ. You can call it a flu. You can call it a virus. You can call it many different names, I’m not sure anybody even knows what it is.
Donald Trump (May 8): “This is gonna go away without a vaccine. It’s gonna go away and we’re not gonna see it again.”
Donald Trump (July 1): “I think that at some point that’s going to sort of just disappear, I hope.
Donald Trump (March 19, Woodward Interview): “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down.”
Background on Trump repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus throughout the crisis:
On January 22nd, Trump described the coronavirus as “one person coming in from China.”
On January 30th, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency.
By February 7th, Trump began insisting that coronavirus would become weaker and disappear as the weather started to warm.
On February 10th, Trump insisted that the U.S. only had 11 cases of coronavirus and “most of them are getting better very rapidly.”
On February 26th, Trump wrongly claimed that coronavirus was like the regular flu and “we’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner.”
On February 28th, Trump insisted that “One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear” and suggested that coronavirus was Democrats’ “new hoax.”
On March 2nd, Trump baselessly claimed that the World Health Organization’s estimate that the coronavirus had a 3.4% mortality rate was “really a false number.”
Through March 10th, Trump continued to insist, “Just stay calm. It will go away.”
On March 15th, as states began going into lockdown, Trump claimed that the United States had “tremendous control” over the virus.
On March 31st, Trump wrongly predicted that the virus would go away by the end of April.
Trump on April 28th: “This is going to go away.”
On May 15th, Trump falsely asserted that the virus would “go away at some point” while downplaying the need for a vaccine.
On June 17th, Trump stated that “The numbers are very minuscule compared to what it was. It’s dying out.”
On July 1st, Trump again claimed that the virus would “just disappear.”
On July 22nd, Trump claimed children don’t spread the virus despite evidence that children over 10 spread the virus just as much as adults.