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In reply to the discussion: He didn't downplay the Covid19 threat. [View all]thesquanderer
(12,246 posts)57. Right from your quote...
and that "this is their new hoax," leaving it unclear whether he was calling the virus itself a hoax.
So even from your quote, he never clearly called the virus a hoax.
Everything he said where he put the words virus and hoax in close proximity could nonetheless easily refer to the hoax being something other than the virus per se. And in fact, that's what makes the most sense. Because:
Just talking logically... even his initial ridiculous statements, like "15 cases going down to zero" or "will magically disappear" STILL inherently acknowledged the reality that the virus itself was indeed real. If he ever meant to call the virus itself a hoax, then that negates EVERY statement which acknowledged that it existed, of which there were very many, including the two that started thos paragraph.
So we have a TON of statements where he acknowledged that the virus is real (even if he WAY downplays its severity), and we have ZERO statements that unambiguously said it was NOT real, that it was just a hoax and there was in reality no virus.
That's why saying he called the virus a hoax is a bad argument. The facts just don't support it.
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He never literally called covid a hoax. He certainly downplayed it, though.
thesquanderer
Sep 2020
#14
Exactly. As you posted, "Trump did not call the coronavirus itself a hoax."
thesquanderer
Sep 2020
#26
he didn't have to: his surrogate limbaugh called it a hoax for two months from 600 stations
certainot
Sep 2020
#31
The dirty prick used it to benefit him politically and then weaponized it against his opponents...
WyattKansas
Sep 2020
#24
Even worse, he vehemently argued FOR behavior that would worsen the pandemic.
Nevilledog
Sep 2020
#43
Fkn lowlife lying orange POS...so many people who were alive in January would likely still
iluvtennis
Sep 2020
#58