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Conservatives are Furious After Nancy Pelosi Refers to Virus as the ‘Trump Virus’

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed President Donald Trump’s lack of action on the novel coronavirus pandemic in a particularly apt way Tuesday evening, calling it the “Trump virus” in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

“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,” she told Blitzer, appearing on CNN’s The Situation Room. “It is a pandemic that has gotten worse before it will get better because of his inaction.”

“In fact, clearly, it is the Trump virus,” she added, also reiterating the phrase later during the interview, The Hill reports.

Pelosi was responding to Trump’s press conference at the White House earlier Tuesday, where he urged Americans to wear masks, wash their hands and practice social distancing to hamper the spread of the virus.

This was Trump’s first press conference regarding the pandemic in more than three months, and he struck an ominous tone, noting that the outbreak “will get worse before it gets better,” because the virus is surging in parts of the country.

Which wouldn’t have happened if Trump hadn’t ignored the advice of health officials and taken this seriously, from the beginning. Which he didn’t. Pelosi noted this in the interview.

“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,” she said. “He’s the president of the United States.”

Blitzer then asked her if she was contending that thousands of Americans have died because of Trump’s response (or lack thereof).

“Yes, that’s what I am saying,” Pelosi responded. “I think it’s clearly evident.”

And she’s not wrong. Trump has regularly disputed Dr. Anthony Fauci, who happens to be a member of his coronavirus task force and fought the idea of wearing masks. He’s also made dumb and clearly dangerous suggestions about how to kill the virus.

Democrats have long maintained that the Trump administration clearly wasn’t aggressive enough in handling the pandemic that has now killed nearly 146,000 Americans and Pelosi’s criticism, while sharp, definitely rings true.

“We’re approaching four million,” she said. “We’re approaching four million people infected, people affected by this, infected by it, and a large number, like 140,000, who have passed away,” she told Blitzer. “If it’s important to wear a mask now, it would have been important to wear it in March instead of telling us that by April we would all be going to church together. I wish that were the case, but he had no scientific basis for that.”

She clearly wants the Trump administration to get its act together and look to science for answers.

“If they don’t return to science and governance — and that’s a way we can overcome this,” she said. “We have hope and prayers for a vaccine. God willing that will be soon. But it is still months away, and people will die. So let’s hope that the president comes closer to embracing the reality of this pandemic, this Trump virus.”

Trump has begun endorsing the idea of wearing masks, perhaps because it’s finally dawned on him that this is a real, bonafide crisis, or perhaps because his approval rating continues to plummet, and he’s also now saying Americans should adhere to guidelines set by health officials.

“It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better,” he said during the presser. “We’re asking everybody that when you are not able to socially distance, wear a mask. Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact. They’ll have an effect, and we need everything we can get.”

It makes one wonder: If he’d said that from the beginning, how many thousands of Americans would still be alive? How many thousands of families and friends wouldn’t have to grieve? Because this man failed us, we’ll never know the answer to that question.

Many conservatives were furious with the new name:

WATCH:

 

Megan Hamilton
meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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