House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made numerous false claims during an MSNBC interview on Friday, and claimed that the coronavirus crisis in the United States was “largely of” President Donald Trump’s “making,” and that he was responsible for Americans dying.
“The second bill was mask, mask, mask, and, uh, trying to, uh, facilitate the, um, uh, personal protective equipment that we don’t really have as much as we need it when we needed it because the president wouldn’t do Defense Production Act,” Pelosi claimed. “So, the situation we’re in is largely of his making, calling it a hoax, saying it will magically disappear, not calling upon the Defense Production Act to protect the workers who are trying to save lives as they risk their own lives in doing so.”
Pelosi’s claim that Trump called the coronavirus a “hoax” has been debunked, and her claim that he did not invoke the Defense Production Act is also false.
Pelosi later claimed that the reason the U.S. was in the situation was because “early into this the president refused to accept the facts.”
Again, Pelosi’s claim is false because it ignores the fact that the Trump administration repeatedly offered to send the CDC into China during the first week in January to help with the outbreak, and it ignores the fact that the president implemented travel restrictions on China and later Europe to slow the spread of the coronavirus. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH) director Dr. Anthony Fauci has also publicly stated that the president has listened to the recommendations that the scientific officials in the administration have made to him.
WATCH:
Nancy Pelosi tells lie after lie to insist the coronavirus crisis "is largely of [Trump's] making."
He never called the virus a hoax and has used the DPA.
Why is she more willing to spread lies than confront China for their coronavirus cover-up?pic.twitter.com/PO3FFlsFyb
— Tommy Pigott (@TommyPigott) April 18, 2020
During another part of the interview, Pelosi was asked about the economic impact from the coronavirus pandemic.
MSNBC’s Ari Melber asked, “Speaker, do you view this as simply a product of this tough pandemic, or do you view this as a Trump recession?”
“Well, it’s probably a combination,” Pelosi responded.
Nearly every country on earth has been moderately or severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and the notion that Trump is responsible for the recession defies reason.
The Council on Foreign Relations reported:
Readings in early April suggested the global economy was sailing into colossal storm. “We anticipate the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression,” said Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Meanwhile, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said its indicators produced the strongest warning on record that most major economies had entered a “sharp slowdown.” The World Trade Organization, for its part, forecast that nearly all regions of the world would suffer double-digit declines in trade this year, with North American and Asian exporters hit hardest.
It is also worth noting that a Johns Hopkins study from late 2019 found that the United States was the most prepared nation on earth to handle a pandemic.
WATCH:
Video: Shame on the China-loving, WHO-defending #liberalhack @AriMelber for refusing to correct @SpeakerPelosi for falsely claiming that President Trump thought the coronavirus was "a hoax" and then not pushing back on her insistence that this economic downturn is his fault pic.twitter.com/Opyg2a3tzI
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 17, 2020
Pelosi also claimed in the interview that Trump’s actions were responsible to some unknown extent for Americans dying in the pandemic.
“You just laid out your view of his failures coming from the Trump White House on down,” Melber said. “Do you think those failures cost lives?”
“Yes, I do,” Pelosi responded. “I think delay and denial were deadly.”
It’s worth noting that on February 24, after the Trump administration had taken numerous actions to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Pelosi encouraged people to go to San Francisco’s “Chinatown,” saying that it was “very safe.” The next day, San Francisco declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus, and a couple of weeks later banned large gatherings of people.
WATCH:
Video: More shamelessness from so-called journalist @AriMelber (a Kerry 04 aide) — MELBER: "You just laid out your view of his failures coming from the Trump White House on down. Do you think those failures cost lives?"
PELOSI: Yes, I do. I think delay and denial were deadly." pic.twitter.com/ddsdagnz9x— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 17, 2020