Trump defends bungled handling of
coronavirus with falsehoods and dubious claims
In an interview that aired July 19, "Fox News Sunday"
host Chris Wallace asked President Trump about the coronavirus, upcoming
elections and civil unrest. (The Washington Post)
By
Philip Rucker and
July 19, 2020 at 4:59 p.m. CDT
President
Trump said in an interview aired Sunday that the rising number of U.S. deaths
from the coronavirus “is
what it is,” defended his fumbled management of the pandemic with a barrage of
dubious and false claims, and revealed his lack of understanding about the
fundamental science of how the virus spreads and infects people.
Making
one of his biggest media appearances in months — an hour-long, sit-down interview
with “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace — Trump was visibly rattled and at
times hostile as he struggled to answer for his administration’s failure to
contain the coronavirus, which has claimed more than 137,000 lives in the
United States.
On a
range of other topics, including the racial justice movement and the
Confederate flag, the president positioned himself firmly outside the political
mainstream. And Trump suggested he might not accept the results of
November’s general election should he lose because he predicted without
evidence that “mail-in voting is going to rig the election.”
In a
season of remarkable public appearances by a politically wounded president, the
Wallace interview was still extraordinary, in part because of the volley of
false claims by Trump and aggressive, real-time fact-checking by his
questioner.
Trump —
whom aides say no longer attends coronavirus task force meetings because he
does not have time — showed himself to be particularly misinformed about the
basics of the virus that has been ravaging the nation for more than four
months.
Confronted
by Wallace with a chart showing that the number of coronavirus cases last week
more than doubled from the spring peak in April, Trump replied: “If we didn’t
test, you wouldn’t be able to show that chart. If we tested half as much, those
numbers would be down.”
By the
president’s logic, that assumes people contract the virus only if they test
positive, ignoring the fact that many people are asymptomatic carriers and
unknowingly spread the contagion without taking a test or being reported.
Wallace
later explained to Trump that the number of tests has increased by 37 percent
but the number of cases has shot up by 194 percent. Trump replied, “Many of
those cases are young people that would heal in a day. They have the sniffles
and we put it down as a test. Many of them — don’t forget, I guess it’s like
99.7 percent, people are going to get better and [in] many cases, they’re going
to get better very quickly.”
Though
people in their 20s and 30s, who make up a growing proportion of cases, have
been hospitalized at a lower rate than older people, many still have suffered
severe illness and some have died.
Former
vice president Joe Biden, the
presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, reacted to Trump’s interview in a
statement Sunday: “The past six months have proven again and again that it’s
Donald Trump who doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to COVID-19
. . . When it comes to the
coronavirus, you can’t believe a word he says.”
A
growing number of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found
38 percent approve of his performance and 60 percent disapprove. The same
survey found Biden leading Trump by double digits nationally, 55 percent to 40
percent.
In an
attempt to regain their political footing, Trump and his aides recently have
sought to divert attention from the soaring number of coronavirus cases by
focusing on the rate of deaths. In the Fox interview, Trump falsely asserted,
“I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world.”
“It’s
not true, sir,” Wallace replied. “We had 900 deaths on a single day just this
week.”
Trump
shouted to aides hovering nearby: “Can you please get the mortality rates?”
White
House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany quickly presented Trump with data she
said was from Deborah Birx, a physician and the White House coronavirus
response coordinator, backing up his claim.
“Number
one low mortality fatality rates,” Trump claimed.
At that
point, Fox interrupted the taped interview for Wallace to explain to his
viewers that according to data
from Johns Hopkins University, the United States ranked seventh
among 20 countries in mortality rate, worse than Brazil and Russia. The White
House relied on European data showing Italy and Spain doing worse than the
United States but Brazil and South Korea doing better. The White House chart
did not include Russia and other countries doing better, according to Wallace.
White House press secretary Kayleigh
McEnany answers questions at a news briefing at the White House on July 16.
(Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
When
Wallace pointed out that coronavirus deaths in the United States were still
about 1,000 a day, Trump said: “It came from China. They should’ve never let it
escape, they should’ve never let it out, but it is what it is.”
Trump
then hypothesized that the case count in Europe was so much lower than in the
United States because “they don’t test,” as opposed to a sign that the virus
was not as rampant there because their countries had largely contained it.
By
conducting mass testing, Trump said, “We are creating trouble for the fake news
to come along and say, ‘Oh, we have more cases.’ ”
Trump
reiterated his long-held theory that the virus would somehow “disappear,” a
claim not grounded in scientific fact.
“I will
be right eventually,” Trump told Wallace. “You know I said, ‘It’s going to disappear.’
I’ll say it again. It’s going to disappear, and I’ll be right . . . You know why? Because I’ve been
right probably more than anybody else.”
Trump
used his Fox interview to continue the White House’s remarkable assault on some of the
scientists and public health professionals spearheading the government’s
response. The president called Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top
infectious-disease expert, “a little bit of an alarmist.” He noted that Fauci
had argued internally against restricting travel from China, which Trump
ordered in late January, and had initially said all Americans did not need to
wear masks, before there was scientific evidence that doing so would help slow
the spread.
Trump
also challenged the assessment of Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, who again warned last week that the pandemic
could worsen this fall when flu season begins, reflecting widespread scientific
consensus. “I don’t think he knows,” Trump said of Redfield.
Trump
sought to draw a hard line on the coronavirus relief bill, saying it must include a payroll
tax cut and liability protections for businesses, as lawmakers
prepare to plunge into negotiations over unemployment benefits and other key
provisions in coming days.
Republican leaders are largely dismissive of the idea of cutting payroll taxes, which fund Social Security, while siding with Trump on the liability issue.
Republican leaders are largely dismissive of the idea of cutting payroll taxes, which fund Social Security, while siding with Trump on the liability issue.
The Fox
interview was conducted outdoors on a White House patio on an oppressively hot
day — the president’s choice, as Wallace twice noted. Trump joked that he
wanted to see Wallace sweat, but it was the president’s face that glistened with
sweat as the Fox anchor engaged him on a wide range of other topics, including
the race and justice issues that convulsed the country. Trump declined to say
whether he found the Confederate flag offensive and defended what many
Americans view as a symbol of slavery, racial oppression and treason.
“When
people proudly have their Confederate flags, they’re not talking about racism,”
Trump said. “They love their flag. It represents the South. They like the
South. People right now like the South.”
Wallace
followed up: “So you’re not offended by it?”
“Well,
I’m not offended either by Black Lives Matter,” Trump replied. “That’s freedom
of speech. You know, the whole thing with cancel culture, we can’t cancel our
whole history. We can’t forget that the North and the South fought. We have to
remember that, otherwise we’ll end up fighting again.”
Trump
also teased the possibility that he might not accept the election results if he
were to lose, jeopardizing America’s tradition of a peaceful transfer of power
between presidents.
When
Wallace asked Trump whether he considers himself a “good” or “gracious” loser,
the president replied that he doesn’t like to lose. Then he added, “You don’t
know until you see. It depends. I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election.
I really do.”
For
weeks now, Trump has claimed without evidence that the rise in voting by mail
in many states makes voting susceptible to widespread fraud.
“Are
you suggesting that you might not accept the results of the election?” Wallace
asked.
“No,”
Trump responded. “I have to see.”
Later
in the interview, pressed on whether he will accept the results, Trump again
declined to say. “I have to see,” he said.
Biden
campaign spokesman Andrew Bates responded to Trump’s remarks in a statement:
“The American people will decide this election. And the United States
government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”
Trump
sought to portray Biden as mentally vacant, telling Wallace that he did not
want to characterize his opponent as “senile” but positing that “Joe doesn’t
know he’s alive” and is “mentally shot.”
Trump
then challenged Biden to a cognitive test, which the president characterized as
exceedingly difficult. During a physical exam in 2018, Trump took the Montreal
Cognitive Assessment — which includes animal pictures and other simple queries
aimed at detecting mild cognitive impairment such as dementia — and has regularly
boasted about it since.
Wallace
told Trump that he tried the test himself after hearing the president brag
about passing it. Wallace said “it’s not the hardest test,” adding that one of
the questions on the version he took was to properly identify a picture of an
elephant.
“I’ll
bet you couldn’t even answer the last five questions,” Trump said. “I’ll bet
you couldn’t. They get very hard, the last five questions.
“Well,
one of them was count back from 100 by seven,” Wallace said, adding: “Ninety-three.”
