House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the coronavirus should be called the “Trump virus” because of the president’s handling of the pandemic.
.@SpeakerPelosi: “It is the Trump Virus… if he had said months ago, let’s wear a mask, let’s socially distance instead of having rallies, then more people would’ve followed his lead – he’s the POTUS – instead of… making it a manhood thing not to wear a mask.” pic.twitter.com/cW0FVimsX7
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) July 21, 2020
Pelosi was responding to Trump’s coronavirus press briefing at the White House on Tuesday in which he urged Americans to wear face masks while in public.
“Well, I think with the president’s comments today, he recognized the mistakes he has made by now embracing mask-wearing and the recognition this is not a hoax,” Pelosi told CNN.
“It is a pandemic that has gotten worse before it will get better because of his inaction,” she claimed. “In fact, clearly, it is the Trump virus.”
Trump should have encouraged Americans to wear masks “months ago,” Pelosi argued.
“If he had said months ago, let’s wear masks, let’s not—let’s socially distance instead of having rallies and whatever they were, then more people would have followed his lead,” Pelosi said. “He’s the president of the United States.”
When asked directly whether she believes Americans have died because of the president, Pelosi said: “Yes, that’s what I am saying. I think it’s clearly evident, so let’s hope the president comes closer to embracing the reality of this pandemic—this Trump virus.”
Just over a week ago, the San Francisco liberal was criticized herself for insisting she had no regrets about her initial downplaying of the virus, going so far as to encourage citizens to participate in mass gatherings for the Chinese New Year.
Blue states have been particularly hard-hit by the spread, including her home state of California, which surpassed New York this week for having the most cases after Democrats again encouraged mass gatherings in June to protest racial injustice.
Yet, Pelosi’s new phrase for the coronavirus is even more ironic given Democrats’ knee-jerk reaction against Republicans when they referred to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan virus” or the “China virus.”
Indeed, Pelosi was one of several congressional Democrats who accused Republicans of racism and xenophobia for pointing out that the coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China.
Yet somehow it’s appropriate to refer to the coronavirus as the “Trump virus,” thereby absolving China of any blame for the initial spread of the pandemic, as several critics pointed out:
COVID-19 was unleashed onto the world by China.
@SpeakerPelosi now sides with Communist China by calling it the “Trump Virus.”Nancy, we’re both old enough to know what I mean when I say you’ve officially “jumped the shark.”
— Rep. Greg Pence (@RepGregPence) July 22, 2020
Nancy Pelosi absolves China of any blame for the China virus. She blames President Trump instead. pic.twitter.com/8mopbOXtZX
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) July 21, 2020
Apparently Nancy Pelosi is okay with calling COVID-19 “the Trump Virus” but not “the China Virus”
It didn’t come from Trump—it came from China.
Pelosi is a disgrace to America.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 22, 2020
