Trump’s holiday virus spin turns into a self-own the next morning
Trump used his Independence Day remarks to dismiss the threat of COVID-19, claiming that 99 percent of cases were “totally harmless.” By July 5, that line was drawing sharp public pushback, with health officials and commentators refusing to let the president rewrite the scale of the pandemic. The problem was not just that the claim was wildly misleading. It was that it landed while the country was still posting huge daily case numbers and trying to convince the public that caution still mattered.
First recorded Jul 5, 2020·Meaningfully updated Jul 5, 2020
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Trump’s holiday virus spin turns into a self-own the next morning
Trump used his Independence Day remarks to dismiss the threat of COVID-19, claiming that 99 percent of cases were “totally harmless.” By July 5, that line was drawing sharp public pushback, with health officials and commentators refusing to let the president rewrite the scale of the pandemic. The problem was not just that the claim was wildly misleading. It was that it landed while the country was still posting huge daily case numbers and trying to convince the public that caution still mattere…
Trump used his Independence Day remarks to dismiss the threat of COVID-19, claiming that 99 percent of cases were “totally harmless.” By July 5, that line was drawing sharp public pushback, with health officials and commentators refusing to let the president rewrite the scale of the pandemic. The problem was not just that the claim was wildly misleading. It was that it landed while the country was still posting huge…
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