11 times Donald Trump downplayed the coronavirus

President Donald Trump has consistently underplayed the severity of the coronavirus and its impact on the country over the past few months. And who has comes to his defense? Vice President Mike Pence! Chris Cillizza runs through some of the top moments President Trump has belittled the threat of coronavirus.

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:
Pence seeks to blame CDC and China for any delay in US coronavirus response — not Trump's initial failure to face reality

Trump uses China as a foil when talking coronavirus, distancing himself from criticism

Trump Defends Closing Borders to Travelers to Fight Coronavirus

April 5 coronavirus news

February 26 coronavirus news

Trump again downplays coronavirus by comparing it to the seasonal flu. It’s not a fair comparison.

FACT CHECK: Trump Compares Coronavirus To The Flu, But It Could Be 10 Times Deadlier

Trump says a nationwide coronavirus stay-home order was discussed – but is ‘pretty unlikely’ for now

Brazilian president's press secretary tests positive for coronavirus, days after meeting Trump

US coronavirus death toll reaches 61 as cities, states close bars and other venues

The 30 most outrageous lines from Donald Trump's interview with Sean Hannity

President Trump’s Prime-Time Pandemic

About me:
I was named "best dressed" in 7th grade. That, along with being CNN's editor at large and author of the daily "Point" newsletter are my proudest achievements. Look for me here every Tuesday and Thursday to find out what’s really going down in politics.

CREDITS
Writer: Chris Cillizza
The Point team: Leigh Munsil and Allison Gordon
Editor: Michelle Cho
Producer: Arielle Sacks

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48 comments

    1. Why is there a racial disparity on who is dying from the coronavirus (ex: Michigan, Chicago, Lousiana)?

    2. “Trump has consistently underplayed the severity of the coronavirus and its impact on the country over the past few months”…and Chris yet again exposes himself as a lying lib hack. The WHO tweeted in mid-January that there’s no evidence of human to human transmission of the virus, it assumed the virus was primarily relegated to Wuhan, and only by January 20/21 did the WHO say human to human transmission was possible, not definite. As the severity of the virus became known, Trump took proper measures, including, by January 31, organizing a pandemic team, warning the virus was a public health emergency and banning foreign nationals who had been to China over the previous 2 weeks. If people like you knew back then that the virus was the danger we now know it is, you would have had nonstop coverage warning us all as of mid January. Instead CNN and libs were busy branding Trump a racist after he banned foreign nationals who had been to China from coming to the US.

    3. Hi, Chris. My question is, is it possible to kill CNN with the Coronavirus and if so how soon can we make that happen? I would celebrate for days if your fake news agency shut down and all of you left wing activists masquerading as journalists had to go get warehouse jobs. That would be AWESOME!

    4. I’d rather CNN be honest and make a video titles “1000 times CNN blamed OUR President incorrectly” or “CNN apologizes for calling OUR President racist because he stopped people coming from China to keep American safe”. I must have what Fredo had…I’m over here hallucinating, thing CNN and it’s core viewers would ever admit wrongdoing. As you were…keep stoking the flames of division and hate.

    5. Well keep saying that to yourself sir, Trump don’t care about the American people getting sick in may die from the virus. It’s sad That the coronavirus is still not even a top priority to him, and that way of thinking will lead the downfall to this country.

    1. Does Trump really believe what he is saying? I guess the only thing he believes in is his own money…

    2. CNN was giving the information that the CDC was reporting. CNN did not belittle or downplay the virus. Can you link a source and time stamp if Im wrong, please?

    3. Caillous Step Dad | couldn’t find a good source but I can tell you this… While the Coronavirus was ramping up, CNN was more worried about China’s feelings than anything else… they felt that calling trump out for calling it a Chinese virus (which it is) was top priority above all. This inadvertently downplays the virus itself, because we people turn on CNN and this all they hear about, they lose focus on what is actually important to know at this time. CNN is far more concerned with trying to portray trump in a negative light than they are with the virus itself. And I guarantee you if Hillary called it a Chinese virus she wouldn’t face this same backlash..

  1. We have to vote this guy out of the White House. He’s already cost so many lives with his “this will blow over” responses to such a serious pandemic

    1. @Ameen Younis the ignorant people, actually more people flew from US to China in Jan for Chinese news year…. Nowadays flights from China to US are empty. Fights from US to China are full and price skyhighed…

    2. @Ameen Younis Fantastic response from Trump. Better than other world leaders. In the Middle East they were waiting too long for instructions from outside. Iranian deputy health was already infected personally, but talking like a hero

    3. Agree on the travel ban, but its more likely for trade war, because after that he did downplay the outbreak over and over, time have been wasted, so as many lives lost.

  2. Remember when bill deblasio of NYC told people to go out and enjoy themselves? CNN does not want you remembering too much history

    1. Moe Snert, you’re comment basically resorts to *”look! squirell!”*

      Trump is a failure, from boasting from 15 cases to almost 400k with 11k dead. If that’s not incompetence I don’t know what. Also, how is his prediction about ending the lockdown by Easter?? that’s never going to happen now. Ouch, what an incomptent f**l!

      can’t get dumber than this, oh wait you can! by being his supporter.

    2. @Mikael I agree. Anyone who downplayed it should be fired immediately. But deblasio is a mayor and Trump’s the president of a the country. What Trump did was way worse. Let’s also not forget fox news and Republicans in Congress literally telling people including fake dr Ben Carson to keep going into crowds and restaurants and to Trump rallies because everything was fine in early March. Devin Nunez last week was on fox news saying all children need to be back in school immediately by this week and governors with brains are listening to the health professionals not Nunez wai can’t even remember calling Lev Parnas 10 times

    3. @darkdr1fter So you think that because we have alot of confirmed cases that we are doing bad? How about go look at https://ourworldindata.org/covid-testing And scroll down to total tests performed and daily tests performed by country. We are up to 150k daily tests, while 90% of other countries havent even hit 5k daily tests, only a few countries have over 10k daily tests. We almost hit 2million tests while other countries only have between 50k-300k total tests performed. So how can other countries have higher confirmed cases if they havent tested even a 1/10th as what we tested? Its common sense. And with 330m popluation, being the 3rd most in the world, you are comparing death numbers to countries with 10-60 million population. I learned proportions in 3rd grade math.

  3. is this really the best you can do cnn ?? wow !! just gotta keep bashing him don’t you ?? pathetic !!

  4. How about how the dems were saying this was nothing up to the end of march while trump was taking actions in January…

  5. As Arthur Morgan would say…

    “Who’s this coward?”

    He was a good man. (1863 – 1899)

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