‘Donald Trump rather than battling bigotry wants to battle Twitter…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez accused President Donald Trump of killing black Americans with “his failed response to the coronavirus” and the “hopelessness that he is trying to stoke.”
Deflecting from widespread criticisms that recent Democrat-backed race-riots and demonstrations recklessly endangered the public health—and particularly that of vulnerable African Americans—amid the ongoing health crisis, Perez sought to pin the responsibility squarely on the president in an interview with Meet the Press.
WATCH: DNC Chair @TomPerez on President Trump’s treatment of the African-American community: “He has killed them in some places because of his failed response to coronavirus.” pic.twitter.com/riexBgwh1U
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 11, 2020
The Left’s efforts to have it both ways have been met mostly with derision, including a claim by some partisan public-health officials that “racism” was a greater health risk than the virus. Since March, the pandemic has killed nearly 115,000 Americans while disproportionately impacting low-income black and Latino communities.
But with the riots fading, for now, into the background—and along with them, the mainstream media’s coronavirus silence—some leftist networks have brazenly attempted to pivot back to the prior COVID-shaming of those who ignored lockdown regulations and social-distancing guidelines.
Perez subtly tried to conflate the two dueling crises, both of which were exacerbated greatly by the sensationalism-driven claims of left-wing media and public figures seeking to bludgeon the current administration.
“Donald Trump rather than battling bigotry wants to battle Twitter,” Perez claimed, referencing the social-media giant’s recent efforts to impose false fact-checks on the president’s tweets.
“Rather than bringing us together, he wants to continue to drive us apart,” Perez continued. “What has he done to black people in America? He has killed them in some places because of his failed response to coronavirus, the unemployment rate, joblessness, hopelessness that he is trying to stoke.”
Perez went on to praise presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden for being the “uniter-in-chief.”
“We need a consoler-in-chief. Not a tweeter-in-chief,” Perez said. “Joe Biden was that. He’s a listener-in-chief as well.”
While several Democratic strategists are urging Biden to stay “in the basement” to avoid making public, embarrassing gaffes, Perez encouraged Biden to step up to “make sure that the American people know that under a Biden leadership we will make government work again.” Perez continued.
The differences between the two candidates couldn’t be clearer, he added. “I applaud what the vice president has been doing.”
Other Democrats, however, aren’t so sure that Biden’s place should be in the spotlight.
One of Perez’s predecessors as DNC chair, former Clinton fundraiser Terry McAuliffe, admitted to a group of Democrats last week that Biden has a hard time “breaking through” to voters, and that he should keep campaign away from the public eye.
“People say all the time, ‘Oh, we got to get the vice president out of the basement,'” McAuliffe said. “He’s fine in the basement. Two people see him a day: his two body people. That’s it. Let Trump keep doing what Trump’s doing.”
Liberty Headlines’ Ben Sellers contributed to this report.