House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday revealed what she believes is “really dangerous” about President Donald Trump’s falsehoods about the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview with “The Late Late Show” host James Corden, Pelosi called on scientists to “speak up” to correct the president’s misinformation.
“It’s one thing to not tell the truth, to convey falsehood after falsehood after falsehood,” said Pelosi. “But to do so so repetitively that people almost accept it as partially true eclipses the facts.”
Trump downplayed the threat of the virus for weeks and has been widely criticised for his administration’s slow and haphazard response. He has been using the daily White House task force briefings to rewrite his failure, tout unproven cures and attack journalists.
“So we have to insist on the truth because, again, it doesn’t seem like he has any, shall we say, thoughtfulness about mistakes that have been made,” Pelosi continued. “He keeps saying everything’s wonderful, but it isn’t.”
Pelosi noted shelter-in-place orders and social distancing were having an effect on slowing the spread of the contagion, which has now killed more than 23,000 people in the U.S.
She also warned that Trump’s wish to reopen businesses “because of the stock market or whatever” could be dangerous, even causing some places where the number of infections is ebbing to see a renewed surge.
“Look, we all care about the economy, we care about the lives and the livelihoods of the American people and for a long time now bad decisions were made, or opportunities were ignored, so what we want now is let’s get on a good track,” she added.
Check out the interview here: