Over 160 thousand Americans are dead of the pandemic that's left no aspect of life in the United States unaffected.
Critics of President Donald Trump say that this growing death toll would have been significantly smaller if the President had listened to experts, developed a national response strategy, expanded testing, and imparted to the public the seriousness of the threat posed by the virus.
Though Trump has repeatedly insisted that one death of the virus is too many, he hasn't indicated much, if any, remorse or reflection on the 160 thousand dead.
In a recent interview with Jonathan Swan of Axios, Trump said of the death toll:
"They are dying. It's true. It is what it is, but that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it."
The President was largely criticized for what seemed like a dismissal of the deaths compounded by a false assurance that everything was under control.
At a recent White House press briefing, one correspondent asked the President if he would have called for former President Barack Obama's resignation if 160 thousand Americans had died under his administration.
Watch Trump's answer below.
REPORTER: If 160,000 people had died on Obama's watch, would you have called for his resignation?
TRUMP: No
[Trump called for Obama to resign over ebola, which didn't kill anyone in the US!] pic.twitter.com/mkJ3T4r1vr
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 10, 2020
The President responded:
"No, I wouldn't have done that. I think it's been amazing what we've been able to do."
The President went on to praise his own response to the pandemic, falsely claiming that he saved lives by shutting down the country. In reality, individual state governors shut down their own states, with Trump urging anti-lockdown protesters to "LIBERATE" their states from the measure.
As for Trump's assertion that he wouldn't call for Obama to resign, resurfaced tweets are making that hard to believe.
If this doctor, who so recklessly flew into New York from West Africa,has Ebola,then Obama should apologize to the American people & resign!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2014
If Obama resigns from office NOW, thereby doing a great service to the country—I will give him free lifetime golf at any one of my courses!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2014
Obama is making the Ebola problem much worse than it needs to be in the U.S. by not halting flights from West Africa. Airport testing a joke
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2014
Trump frequently called for Obama's resignation for his handling of the Ebola outbreak, which killed a total of two Americans and for which only 11 Americans were treated.
People couldn't resist bringing the tweet to Trump's attention.
Well. pic.twitter.com/FKkogLKdFe
— The Lincoln Project 🏴☠️ (@ProjectLincoln) August 10, 2020
Trump “press briefing" today
REPORTER: If 160,000 people had died on Obama's watch, would you have called for his resignation?
TRUMP: “No"
....then proceeded to describe what an amazing job he did repeating the debunked claim he saved 1 to 2M lives by closing the border. pic.twitter.com/S3XCBBhAh2
— Justice For Hedgehogs 🆘 (@LakeLouise1988) August 10, 2020
Trump in 2020 when asked if he would have called for Obama's resignation had 160,000 people died on his watch: No
Trump in 2014 unprompted: Obama should resign because one doctor who contracted Ebola flew into the U.S. https://t.co/MEKn1dvlry pic.twitter.com/7DYzYo1Vz8
— Hunter Schwarz (@hunterschwarz) August 10, 2020
Aug 10, 2020
Reporter: If 160K people had died on President Obama's watch, do you think you would have called for his resignation?
Trump: "No, I wouldn't have."
Oct 23, 2014
Trump: "If this doctor...has Ebola, then Obama should apologize...& resign!"https://t.co/CpZmfaZVfL
— Qasim Rashid for Congress (@QasimRashid) August 10, 2020
Trump called for the resignation of Obama after 2 deaths during the ebola virus. Over 100 thousand deaths under his presidency from coronavirus , he suddenly doesn't remember the tweet about Obama resigning. 😅😅😅😅😅😅😂😅😅😂
— Errol (@errolbsk) August 11, 2020
Trump's virus response continues to be panned.
In Trump's mind you either get COVID and die or you get it and are basically asymptomatic. In fact, there are a host of symptoms and potentially long term effects that we simply don't know about yet. It's not binary. There are real life consequences for survivors too. https://t.co/LNYrJgUbAY
— Sam Stein (@samstein) August 11, 2020
Nearly 50,000 American soldiers were killed in Vietnam. Over 163,000 in the US have died so far from from COVID-19 and this is far from over.
We have to vote Donald Trump out of office in November like our lives depend on it because they actually do.
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) August 11, 2020
Trump's approach to Covid is as if instead of trying to catch a serial killer police hold a press conference every day to assure the public that sooner or later he'll get tired of murdering.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) August 10, 2020
The U.S. could see yet another spike as Trump urges schools across the country to reopen.
