President Trump is now claiming that he always took coronavirus seriously. In fact, he spent months dismissing it as less serious than the seasonal flu. During this time, he could have taken actions that would have saved lives. He chose not to.
Here are the facts:
Here are the facts:
On Jan. 22, Trump was asked, “Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?" He replied: “No. Not at all. And we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
Trump on Jan. 24: “It will all work out well."
Trump on Jan. 28 retweeted a headline from an outlet with a history of spreading false conspiracy theories. The headline: “Johnson & Johnson to create coronavirus vaccine.”
Trump on Jan. 30: “We have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully.”
Trump on Feb. 2: "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China."
On Feb. 10, Trump repeatedly said that warm spring weather could kill the virus: “Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”
Trump on Feb. 19: “I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along.”
On Feb. 23, Trump pronounced the situation “very much under control” and added: “We had 12, at one point. And now they’ve gotten very much better. Many of them are fully recovered.”
On Feb. 26, Trump criticized CNN and MSNBC for “panicking markets.” On Feb. 28, he falsely blamed “the Democrat policy of open borders” for bringing the virus into the country.
On Feb. 25, Trump tweeted about “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” and mocked Schumer for arguing that Trump should be more aggressive in fighting the virus.
On Feb. 26, Trump said: “We’re going down, not up. We’re going very substantially down, not up.”
On Feb. 27, Trump predicted: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.”
On March 2, Trump said: “We’re talking about a much smaller range” of deaths than from the flu. On March 4, he said, about coronavirus: “It’s very mild.”
On March 7, Trump said, “I’m not concerned at all.”
On March 10, Trump promised: “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
You can find this list, and more, here: nytimes.com/2020/03/15/opi…
