Whitmer: Trump ‘Cost Us’ 220,000 Lives — Still Doesn’t Have a ‘National Strategy’

Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) said Monday on MSNBC that President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic cost America 220,000 lives.

She went on to proclaim that he still doesn’t “have a national strategy.”

Anchor Chris Hayes said, “One thing about your tenure as governor I remember watching the protests back in April there was a very concerted attempt by national conservative media and the president and others to really target you politically. This was the boot of tyranny and what it would mean for you politically in your state. It’s a swing state, and it’s hard to stay at home for a long time, and everyone is frustrated. Your approval is up. The political incentives seem to align, which is to say it seems you’ve been politically rewarded by the folks in your state for taking the measure you have and taking the virus seriously. Is that your sense?”

Whitmer said, “I’ve been following the science. People in the state, by and large, have been doing the right thing. In the early days, we have the third-highest number of COVID and deaths. If you look at where we are now, we’re like 33rd in the country. We pushed our rates down. We’ve saved thousands of lives, and our economy is one of the top ten recoveries in the nation. We have a lot to be proud of. When you take this pandemic seriously, it benefits not just your economy but to the health of our people, which centers all the work we’ve been doing. That’s why I think Joe Biden will win the election. People understand an administration that doesn’t get their arms around COVID-19 costs us all.”

“It costs us in terms of 220,000 lives that have been lost,” she continued. “It cost us tens of millions of people who are without work, who are in food lines, people who have never been in a food pantry line in their lives. That’s the real truth here that when an administration doesn’t get their arms around the pandemic, we all pay in so many ways, but our economy, there is no question, is struggling because the Trump administration never got their arms around this pandemic. I know I’m not popular with them because I said they didn’t have a national strategy six months ago, but to this day, they still don’t. We deserve better.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN