SHOT: Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany says Trump never downplayed the virus. Donald Trump himself and literally everyone else disagrees.
[Twitter, @kyledcheney, 9/9/20]
CHASER: Donald Trump admitted it himself, on tape, saying “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don’t want to create a panic.”
[Twitter, @mkraju, 9/9/20]
And the Washington Post has reported more than 100 times he’s downplayed it publicly.
Washington Post: The 106 Times Trump Has Downplayed The Coronavirus Threat
[Twitter, @AaronBlake, 9/9/20]
Some of the many examples of Trump downplaying 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 22, Trump claimed children don’t spread the virus despite evidence that children over 10 spread the virus just as much as adults.