Rep. Al Green Attacks Trump, Republicans for Phantom ‘Hate Crimes’ Over ‘Chinese Virus’

‘This virus does not discriminate—people do. It is incumbent upon all of us to denounce hatred and bigotry in all its forms…’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) House Democrats continued to make clear their priority during the ongoing coronavirus emergency that President Donald Trump should avoid hurting China‘s feelings.

“The use of pejoratives … to refer to novel coronavirus has reverberated from the White House to televisions across the globe,” wrote Democratic Reps. Al Green of Texas, Judy Chu of California and Pramila Jayapal of Washington.

Trump has roundly condemned China’s government cover-up of the severity of coronavirus, costing critical preparation time for other countries around the globe.

Although the Asian super-power now claims to have successfully stop the spread within its boundaries, China’s own citizens have refuted the claim, saying long hospital lines and round-the-clock incinerators suggest otherwise.

During press briefings on the pandemic response, Trump has pointedly called it the “Chinese virus,” while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged other leading nations to embrace similar nomenclature, citing precedents such as the “Spanish flu” and “West Nile virus.”

China has retaliated by spreading propaganda, even among official sources within the country, to suggest that the American military had originally introduced the virus, which emerged last year in the city of Wuhan.

In their missive, the House Democrats claimed, without further evidence, that Asian–Americans had been subjected to physical attacks directly related to the use of slanderous, Sinophobic slurs by Trump and others.

“In recent weeks, there has been an alarming rise in anti-Asian hate crimes across the country, with some people even needing to be hospitalized for attacks they have sustained simply because their race,” Chu wrote, without providing evidence. “It pains me that the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress have actually made things worse by intentionally stoking xenophobia and anger.”

Due to a two-year lag in the FBI’s reporting of nationwide crime statistics, including hate crimes, no data were publicly available to substantiate those claims. The source of the Democrats’ information remained unclear.

Jayapal spoke not only to the potential for violence, but also the emotional harm, saying it caused “tremendous trauma in these communities” for Chinese Americans to hear the oppressive communist regime they fled thusly criticized by the leader of their adoptive country.

“The President must not only stop using these harmful terms and tropes, he must condemn and investigate all anti-Asian American hate crimes and discrimination,” Jayapal said, also without providing evidence of any crimes. “Stigma is the enemy of public health and we need leaders, especially the President of the United States, to strongly condemn the increasing number of racially-motivated attacks and racist rhetoric about the Asian community.”

Green—who ranks high among Congress’s foremost authorities on race-baiting—had yet to link the virus to discrimination against African Americans. However, he chimed in with a more generalized denunciation of oppression, for lack of a better reason to be outraged.

“This virus does not discriminate—people do,” he railed. “It is incumbent upon all of us to denounce hatred and bigotry in all its forms and ensure the safety and well-being of those communities that may be unfairly targeted.”