MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough on Tuesday slammed President Donald Trump for his coronavirus outbreak response.
According to Scarborough, Trump has been dealing in an “alternate reality” by downplaying the virus early during the pandemic that “has now killed 150,000 Americans.” The MSNBC host argued that only autocrats “create their own reality and invite their followers to come along.”
Partial transcript as follows:
Following the lies of Donald Trump, the alternative realities of Donald Trump, when he thanked President Xi in China for their transparency and great work on behalf of the United States people, the coronavirus on January 24 or when he said two days before that to CNBC in late January that it’s one person coming in from China and it’s going to go away.
When he told a Michigan crowd a month later at the end of February it’s 15 people coming in from this country, but it’s soon going to be down to zero, we have nothing to worry about. When he told Republican senators in early March, don’t worry about it, it’s going to be fine, it’s going to go away.
When he told black leaders in the White House that it was going to disappear magically, that they needed to just relax, it was going to disappear magically. When he started to say it was going to go away in April because the weather was going to get warmer. When he mocked people for wearing masks when somebody asked him a question on a mask and he told them to take a mask off, and when the person refused to for the safety of themselves and their family, Donald Trump said, “Oh, you’re being politically correct.” When he continued to mock masks as somehow being unmanly or for whatever reason. When he said that the virus is going to magically go away and it wasn’t going to be with us in the fall and that we should open schools in the spring, last spring.
Again, it continues. This alternate reality has now killed 150,000 Americans. Who knows how many lives could have been saved if Donald Trump had taken this as seriously as Joe Biden at the end of January in a USA Today op-ed, when Joe Biden said, “We’re not ready for the pandemic. Let your scientists and let your doctors lead this, Mr. President. Let them speak to us, tell us how we can save ourselves, how we can protect our families, how we can protect our senior citizens, how we can protect people with underlying conditions. Let your scientists and doctors talk.” But the president wouldn’t do that.
Scarborough then addressed Trump’s supporters, who he referred to as “cult followers,” and asked if they are going to continue following the president as the death toll rises.
“How long do you go, Republican senators, until you speak up and start being more worried about the lives of the senior citizens in your district than the loyalty you show to a man who has shown no loyalty to you or your people?” Scarborough asked. “That’s a question because he’s not getting better, Republican senators.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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