Donald Trump paused and refused to answer a direct question from a local television station about whether he authorized the slowdown of COVID-19 testing, as he said during his rally on Saturday night.
He's been idiotically claiming that the number of COVID-19 cases has skyrocketed in America because we test so much. And he's said many times he wants to slow the testing down so the numbers look better for him, as if a failure to document those infected with the disease somehow means it isn't spreading like wildfire.
For his own benefit!!!!
Trump repeated this same talking point during his disastrous Tulsa campaign rally which brought the topic back to the forefront of American politics and health.
No one campaigns against Trump better than Trump. https://t.co/QxJ7Rwcv6g
— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) June 22, 2020
He even mocked COVID-19 as the "Kung Flu" to his rally-goers.
On Monday, during an interview with Scripps television, he was asked point blank if he really wants testing to slow down.
"Someone watching now on the local news is not going to get a test because you asked," Joe St. George said.
Trump replied by repeating his usual talking points, saying we test more people than any other country in the world.
That fact means nothing.
Zip.
Zero.
It's good that testing capabilities are improving, but bragging about that is myopic.
Trump said, "As you do more tests you show more and more cases."
Yeah?
He continued, "If we did slow it down - we wouldn't show nearly as many cases."
This confirms what John Bolton said: Trump is unfit to lead.
St. George tried to get Trump back on track by emphasizing with his arms and hands and asked again directly, "But did you ask to slow it down?
Trump hesitated and stammered "Ahhh" and then refused to answer it directly.
"If it did slow down," he said.
Yes, please proceed.
"Frankly I think were way ahead ourselves if you want to know the truth..."
WTF?
"We've done too good a job," Trump continued.
WTF?
"The reason we have more cases is because we do more testing than any other country," he repeated.
WTF?
He thinks if he says the same things over and over again somehow people will hear them differently.
His minions like Peter Navarro claimed he was only joking Saturday night, and that was repeated all morning on Fox news and Fox Business, but we know he wasn't. This confirms it.
Of course he wants testing to slow down because he wants the numbers of documented infections to go down so that he can claim he is saving lives instead of helping people get infected and die.
UPDATE: Biden issued a statement:
“President Trump just made it clear again today that he views COVID-19 testing as a political inconvenience — not the single most important tool we have to stop the spread of this virus, save lives, and get Americans back to work. And, after the President’s aides spent the weekend trying to spin away his comments in Tulsa as a pathetic attempt at humor, today’s comments showed that the only joke here is the idea that this White House has a shred of credibility left when it comes to fighting the coronavirus.
