Responding to the news that the United States reportedly has more known cases of coronavirus than any nation on earth, leftist GQ columnist Julia Ioffe took a vicious shot at President Trump with a side order of seeming indifference to the suffering of Americans, snapping on Twitter, “Who’s the s***hole country now?”
Who's the shithole country now? https://t.co/7NL4aHbyHq
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) March 26, 2020
Ioffe’s nasty rhetoric ignored one salient fact: that despite the vast number of cases of coronavirus in the United States, the percentage of mortality rate is far less than other countries stricken with the virus, such as Spain, Italy, Iran, and France. In Italy, the mortality rate was over 10% through Thursday; in Spain, roughly 8%; in Iran, 7.6%; in France, almost 6%. The current rate in the United States is 1.5%, and there is mounting evidence that many more people may be infected across the nation, which would drop the mortality rate even further.
Conservative commentators pilloried Ioffe for her comment:
If you needed anymore evidence these people hate America —> https://t.co/dWMIpzKhzk
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) March 26, 2020
The left and their media partners are rooting for the virus. Waiting for the “death to America” chants. https://t.co/jVsfCOIxSV
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) March 26, 2020
This is precisely how the so-called “elite” media feels about our country. https://t.co/mzVquZCxqj
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) March 27, 2020
The Chinese Communist Party thanks you for your propaganda. https://t.co/4E4gZDZvWp
— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) March 27, 2020
In WW2 Japan had to take a Japanese American out of the USA to broadcast propaganda. Today our media does it for China for free. https://t.co/VGrrMNme9h
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) March 26, 2020
Ioffe’s “s***hole” comment was in reference to a story in the The Washington Post from January 2018 that claimed when President Trump met with members of Congress over his prospective immigration deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) plan, Trump reacted to the so-called diversity visa lottery, which favors immigrants from non-European countries, saying, “Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?”
In October 2018, Ioffe, who was previously fired from Politico after she suggested President Trump was “f***ing his daughter” Ivanka, claimed on CNN’s “The Lead” with Jake Tapper that President Trump had “radicalized so many more people than ISIS ever did.”
The comments came in reference to the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue massacre. Ioffe stated, “I think this president, one of the things that he really launched his presidential run on is talking about Islamic radicalization. And this president has radicalized so many more people than ISIS ever did. I mean, the way he talks, the way he — the way he —”
“That is, it’s unconscionable for you to say that,” commentator David Urban responded.
Ioffe continued, “The way that he talks, the way that he allows these — the way he winks and nods to these groups. The way he says, ‘I know I’m not supposed to say it, but I’m a nationalist.’ The way that he hems and haws when he has to condemn these people, gritting his teeth says, says ‘fine, OK, I condemn this.'”
Ioffe tweeted, “And a word to my fellow American Jews. This president makes this possible. Here. Where you live. I hope the embassy move over there, where you don’t live was worth it.”
In December, appearing on CNN with host Don Lemon, there was this exchange:
Lemon: So, Julia, let me ask you. Let’s take a step back here then. So this meeting with Trump and (Russian Foreign Minister) Lavrov even have happened today? Did the Russians do anything to earn this?
Ioffe: “Well, yeah, they helped him win the presidency. Right? If you’re Trump, you’ve earned it. And in fact, the Ukrainians who have been dying for a White House visit haven’t earned it. They haven’t meddled in the elections the way Trump has asked them to. So they didn’t do what was asked of them. I think it’s telling that Lavrov got a White House meeting for no reason the day that Trump’s impeachment — articles of impeachment are announced.”
She continued:
Last time Lavrov was in the White House, it was the day after he fired Comey, and he told the Russians, you know, I fired him over this Russia thing. Also here’s some super classified Israeli intelligence that you just might want to see.
And, you know, we still don’t know what happened in that hour that he was in the White House. And I have a feeling in the coming days and weeks, we’re going to be finding out that Trump said some pretty — again, I’m speculating, but if last time was anything to go by, given that Trump hasn’t changed, I’m guessing we’re going to learn that Trump said some pretty eyebrow-raising things.