Trump 1/22/20 "And -- we're -- we have it totally under control. It's going to be just fine."
(For god’s sake why is Trump still President? Get him the fuck out of there. This is all on him. England got rid of Chamberlain and brought in Churchill when things were going to shit. We can’t wait until next year. Trump had warnings and fired the people who could have stopped this madness. He didn't get the W.H.O.'s C-19 test kits so he could run a grift on those and wet his beak by selling ones that he was invested in.)
Fact check: Trump tries to erase the memory of him downplaying the coronavirus
Facts First: From January until last week, Trump consistently minimized the risk the coronavirus posed to the country. He claimed to have the virus under "control," that the number of US cases would go "down, not up," that the virus might "disappear" through a "miracle" or something of the sort, that the virus might well vanish by April with the warmer weather, that the media and Democrats were overhyping the situation, and that "this is their new hoax," leaving it unclear whether he was calling the virus itself a hoax. (He later said he was talking about Democrats' coronavirus-related criticism, not the virus.)
Fact check: Trump tries to erase the memory of him downplaying the coronavirus
On Monday, Trump acknowledged that the situation is "bad," that the virus is not under control, that the country might well be heading into a recession, and that American life would not get back to normal for months. He had not made such statements before.
Trump has pointed to his late-January decision to restrict travel from China as evidence that he had always considered the situation "urgent." But he certainly had not clearly communicated that he felt such urgency.
Prior to the World Health Organization's official pandemic declaration on March 11, Trump had never told Americans that he viewed the situation as a potential pandemic. When he was asked by CNBC in an interview that aired January 22 if there were worries about a pandemic, he responded, "No. Not at all. And -- we're -- we have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine."
On March 9, Trump tweeted, "So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!" On March 10, the day before the WHO's pandemic declaration, Trump said, "And we're prepared, and we're doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away."
He added: "It's really working out. And a lot of good things are going to happen."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/17/politics/fact-check-trump-always-knew-pandemic-coronavirus/index.html
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