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We Want Him Held Accountable: Trump Lied and 300,000 Died
A timeline of Trump’s lies, ignorance, and vainglory amidst the worst crisis in a century
December 2020, over 300,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, more than in WWI, Korea, Vietnam, and all other American wars combined (excluding WWII and the Civil War). Trump’s responsibility in this failure is obvious to all but himself: New York Times, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, WaPo, USA Today, Nature, Vox, The Guardian.
Trump has always denied the importance of the pandemic, downplaying its human and economic impacts. Even more, a report published on December 16 showed that a Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy in an email, writing: “We want them infected.”
Lest we ever forget his criminally negligent behaviour in a time of national crisis, here is a timeline of Trump’s lies and misrepresentations since January 2020.
“It’s under control.”
Since January, even before the first American death, Trump has been insisting that the pandemic was “totally under control.” He reiterated this claim that the virus was under control in March, June, July, August, and in September when he stated that Covid affects “virtually nobody.”
In October, after Trump had been himself afflicted by the virus, his administration finally admitted they were “not going to control” the pandemic.
“It’ll go away.”
In February, Trump affirmed that the virus would “go away.” In March, he told the country that churches would be “packed” by Easter and that shutdowns wouldn’t be necessary past the holiday.
In August, amidst a second wave whose very existence was denied by the administration, Trump once again said the virus would “go away.”
At a rally in Lumberton, North Carolina on October 24, Trump stated that “That’s all I hear about now. Turn on television, ‘Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid. By the way, on November 4, you won’t hear about it anymore.”
On October 27, Trump piled up on his claim that Covid was somehow an electoral ploy, asserting that “Until November 4th., Fake News Media is going full on Covid, Covid…
