Fox News anchor Chris Wallace grilled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Sunday for being critical of President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus outbreak while she encouraged people in San Francisco to visit Chinatown in late February.
“That’s what we’re trying to do today is to say, everything is fine here. Come, because precautions have been taken,” Pelosi said on February 24. “We think it’s very safe to be in Chinatown and hope that others will come.”
San Francisco declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus the very next day.
“If the president underplayed the threat in the early days, Speaker Pelosi, didn’t you as well?” Wallace asked.
“No,” Pelosi said. “What we’re trying to do is to end the discrimination, the stigma, that was going out against the Asian-American community. In fact, if you will look, the record will show that our Chinatown has been a model of containing and preventing the virus.”
“So, I’m confident in our folks there and thought it was necessary to offset some of the things that the president and others were saying about Asian-Americans and making them a target,” Pelosi falsely claimed. “A target of violence across the country – hate crimes.”
Trump never said anything about Asian-Americans and never encouraged any discrimination against Chinese-Americans, as Pelosi falsely claimed.
In fact, Trump specifically stated that he wanted to protect the Asian-American community.
“It is very important that we totally protect our Asian-American community in the United States, and all around the world,” Trump tweeted. “They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus is NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form. They are working closely with us to get rid of it. WE WILL PREVAIL TOGETHER!”
Furthermore, Pelosi’s statement is false because it ignores the timeline of events surrounding Trump calling the virus the “Chinese virus.”
Trump did not use that term until March 16, a full three weeks after Pelosi encouraged people to go out into Chinatown. Trump also made clear that the reason he called COVID-19 the “Chinese virus” was because China was falsely accusing the U.S. military of bringing the virus to China.
WATCH:
Fox News' Chris Wallace calls out Nancy Pelosi for promoting tourism during the coronavirus pandemic pic.twitter.com/tkhte8qRYD
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 19, 2020
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:
FOX NEWS HOST CHRIS WALLACE: You, as you are right now, have been very critical of President Trump especially for what you say is the time that he lost initially in January and February in responding to the virus. But I — I want to point out that on February 24th, you went on a walking tour of Chinatown to try to promote tourism there and here is some of what you had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: That’s what we’re trying to do today is to say, everything is fine here. Come, because precautions have been taken.
We think it’s very safe to be in Chinatown and hope that others will come.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: If the president underplayed the threat in the early days, Speaker Pelosi, didn’t you as well?
PELOSI: No. What we’re trying to do is to end the discrimination, the stigma, that was going out against the Asian-American community. In fact, if you will look the record will show that our Chinatown has been a model of containing and — and preventing the virus.
So I’m confident in our folks there and thought it was necessary to offset some of the things that the president and others were saying about Asian-Americans and making them a target. A target of violence across the country — hate crimes —
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: But — but — forgive me, don’t you think — don’t you think that you — you — when you’re about walking without any mask, I understand this is February not April when this happened and saying that there’s no threat. It’s perfectly safe there.
Weren’t you also adding to this perception that there wasn’t such a threat generally?
PELOSI: No. I was saying that you should not discriminate against — discriminate against Chinese-Americans as some in our administration were doing by the way they were labeling the flu and that, no indeed. And again, I think you — if you check the record and it’s current you will see that our — that Chinatown has been a model in all of this.
And so, what we’re saying, look to them for answers, don’t look to them to place blame.