House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) blamed the ineptitude and vengefulness of president Donald Trump for worsening the COVID-19 pandemic now ravaging the United States.
For his part, former vice president Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee frontrunner Joe Biden told Trump to move "more rapidly" against COVID-19. He also demanded Trump use the powers of the Defense Production Act to boost production of medical equipment needed to combat the pandemic.
Since the first COVID-19 case in the U.S. was confirmed on January 21, Trump has continued to intentionally minimize the deadliness of the coronavirus threat to avoid damaging his chances for re-election in November. Asked during a TV interview on January 22 if he was worried about the first COVID-19 case, Trump replied, "No we're not at at all. We have it totally under control. One person coming in from China." There have been over a dozen or so incidents since then of Trump consistently downplaying or laughing off the COVID-19 threat.
Trump spent the end of January, all of February and early March downplaying the COVID-19 threat, thereby impeding the federal government's response to the pandemic when it showed-up in full force in March.
Pelosi on Monday strongly criticized Trump's dismissal of COVID-19, saying this denial led to wrong decisions that cost American lives.
"His denial at the beginning was deadly," said Pelosi to CNN. "His delaying of getting equipment -- it continues -- his delaying of getting equipment to where it is needed is deadly, and now I think the best thing is to prevent more loss of life rather than open things up because we just don't know. We have to have testing, testing, testing -- that's what we said from the start before we can evaluate the nature of it in some of these other regions as well."
Later in the interview, Pelosi said: "As the president fiddles, people are dying."
"Are you saying his downplaying ultimately cost American lives?" asked CNN host Jake Tapper.
"Yes I am. I'm saying that," answered Pelosi. "The other day when he was signing the bill, he said, 'Just think, 20 days ago everything was great.' No, everything wasn't great; we had nearly 500 cases and 17 deaths already, and in that 20 days because we weren't prepared, we now have 2,000 deaths and 100,000 cases."
"So again, we really want to work in a unifying way to get the job done here, but we cannot continue to allow him to continue to make these underestimates of what is actually happening here," said Pelosi. "This is such a tragedy, and we don't even know the magnitude of it because we don't even have the adequate testing."
Trump has also repeatedly attacked Democratic governors, including Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Jay Inslee of Washington, calling them ineffective and insulting them. On Friday, Trump said he wanted governors to be more "appreciative" of his efforts, meaning he wanted them to praise him for the job he's doing. "They don't treat you right, I don't call," he said.
Joe Biden said Donald Trump must move "more rapidly" in the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic quickly spreading across the US.
"We know from experience that speed matters," Biden said in an interview on MSNBC on Monday afternoon. "We know that you can't go too fast. It's about going too slow."
Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, implored Trump to use the federal Defense Production Act "more aggressively" and said that if he were president he would "surge" more medical supplies and equipment to the most devastated states, such as New York.
He also endorsed an idea from New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who has asked the federal government to send life-saving ventilators and other equipment to his state - the worst hit in the US - and when it is under control New York can send the equipment to other states as they need it.
Biden said if he were president, he would "surge" more medical supplies and equipment to the most devastated states, such as New York.
"We know from experience that speed matters," said Biden to MSNBC on Monday afternoon. "We know that you can't go too fast. It's about going too slow."
