One of the most consequential moments from former President Donald Trump's time in the White House was his administration's handling of the pandemic that's gone on to kill more than 600 thousand Americans.
Trump admitted to deliberately downplaying the virus in its early days, hoping to preserve the economy. He and his allies constantly undermined findings from his own officials and politicized basic safety measures, such as wearing masks and limiting gatherings.
One Stanford University study found that Trump's decision to continue holding packed campaign rallies during the pandemic led to at least 30 thousand cases of the virus.
Nevertheless, Trump is still trying to sanitize his pandemic legacy, defending his administration's policy in a recent Fox Business interview.
Trump: 'We did a great job on Covid'www.youtube.com
Trump said:
"We did a great job on Covid, including the fact that I got a vaccine in less than nine months, which would have taken five years. But we did a great job."
He continued:
"Without me, you wouldn't have [the vaccine] for five years and you would have had millions of people throughout the world dead. You would have lost millions and millions of people."
Early last year, before the outbreak of the virus spiraled out of control, officials said that millions of Americans would have died of the virus if no official at the federal, state, or municipal level intervened in any way whatsoever.
Trump has cited this when falsely claiming his policies saved millions of lives.
Trump's boast that he did a "great job" on the pandemic was met with widespread disagreement.
Some said he only did a great job at promoting the virus.
Counties who largely voted for Trump also tend to be hardest-hit by the virus.
@LeeMerrittesq/X
@bob_moss/X
@jelanijones/Bluesky
@Aurkayne/X
@sadcommunistdog; @froglok/Bluesky