Democrats greeted president Donald Trump's speech accepting the nomination as the Republican Party's presidential candidate with a blistering attack focusing on Trump's incompetence in dealing with the raging COVID-19 pandemic.
The condemnation of Trump and his coronavirus policies was delivered by the party's vice presidential candidate, Sen. Kamala Harris, before Trump accepted his party's nomination as its presidential candidate. Harris took apart Trump's boast he had led the U.S. out of the worst of the pandemic and deserves credit for it.
The U.S. currently has six million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 185,000 deaths. It still leads the world both in total cases number and deaths.
Trump has repeatedly said there's no question COVID-19 will go away, and back in May proclaimed victory over the pandemic. Trump boasted, "We have met the moment and we have prevailed."
Harris assailed these claims, saying, "Trump's incompetence is nothing new ... but in January of this year it became deadly." She said that when the risk to the U.S. from COVID-19 became plain in January, "Trump dismissed the threat."
In contrast, Harris said former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, "sounded the alarm" about the new disease that emerged from Wuhan, China.
Harris said the reason Trump was unable and unwilling to deal with the pandemic was because "he was fixated on the stock market over fixing the problem." She said Trump was convinced that if he revealed the true threat of COVID-19 to the American people, "it would hurt the market and hurt his chances of being re-elected."
"That mattered to him more than saving American lives," she said.
"All we needed was a competent president. One who was willing to listen, willing to lead, take responsibility, have a plan, do their job," according to Harris.
Instead, "Donald Trump has failed at the most basic and important job of a president of the United States," according to Harris. "It's his obligation to protect us. Yet, he has failed miserably."
Trump's claim he was tough on China and thereby prevented an even wider spread of the disease is also untrue. Harris said that on Jan. 24, Trump "praised the transparency of the Chinese government." She pointed out Trump "caved" when he needed "to be tough" with China.
"He said, quote, China has been working hard to contain the coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciated their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well," noted Harris.
Harris also said the Chinese government blocked officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from getting access and information that they needed to protect American lives.
"Instead of rising to meet the most difficult moment of his presidency, Donald Trump froze. He was scared and he was petty and vindictive."
