President Trump
Donald John TrumpBiden campaign seeks to let Sanders keep his delegates in unusual move Lady Gaga calls WHO chief a 'superstar' McCarthy says he supports incorporating hospital funding into small business aid package MORE on Saturday offered a fiery defense of his response to the novel coronavirus and the nation’s testing capabilities as the administration faces growing pressure to ramp up testing.
In a lengthy briefing that covered various topics, Trump attempted to cast the United States’ response to the virus as far better than other nations in Europe and elsewhere.
Trump both lashed out at Democratic criticism of his response to COVID-19 while hammering the previous administration of former President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein ObamaCOVID-19: The leadership failure The Memo: Public may be more cautious than Trump on reopening Biden assembling White House transition team MORE, a Democrat, for leaving a bare “cupboard” of medical supplies for him to pull from.
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“We have tremendous testing capacity,” Trump said during the briefing, which lasted just over an hour. “Unfortunately, some partisan voices are trying to politicize the issue of testing.”
Trump suggested it wasn’t right for critics to scrutinize his administration’s work on testing for COVID-19, which broke out in China at the end of 2019, because he inherited “broken junk” from the prior administration.
State leaders like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
Andrew CuomoOvernight Health Care: White House says US has enough tests for phase one | Trump defends protesters challenging social distancing | Hospitals fear being shortchanged on virus funding Trump defends demonstrators protesting social distancing restrictions 13 things to know for today on coronavirus MORE (D) have demanded more action from the federal government to expand testing nationwide as states look to loosen restrictions meant to curb the spread of the virus. Trump has broadly insisted it is the states' responsibility to ramp up their own testing.
Trump's remarks at the briefing represented a growing effort by his administration to assure states that U.S. testing capabilities are sufficient for them to begin moving to the first phase of the White House guidelines for reopening, which were released on Thursday evening.
“As our experts said yesterday, America’s testing capability and capacity is fully sufficient to begin opening up the country totally,” Trump said Saturday, echoing remarks from Vice President Pence a day prior. “Indeed, our system is by far the most robust and advanced in anywhere in the world by far.”
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“As we approach, hopefully, the downward side of what’s going on, I think you are going to see some incredible hard facts that what we did was right,” Trump continued.
The president has faced scrutiny in the media for downplaying the threat from the virus early on in the outbreak, and his administration has been faulted for delays in testing that experts say hampered the overall response to the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.
Trump has made a habit of lashing out at media coverage, doing so Saturday by mentioning New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman
Maggie Lindsy HabermanNYT's Haberman hits Trump over 'misleading' audio on her coronavirus reporting The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump tells governors he has power to reopen state economies The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump gets new press secretary in latest shake-up MORE for a recent story about his newly-tapped chief of staff, Mark Meadows
Mark Randall MeadowsGOP senators push for quick, partial reopening of economy GOP senators press Trump to cooperate with watchdogs following shake-up The Memo: Speculation grows about Fauci's future MORE.
The president also began the briefing by comparing the U.S. mortality rate per capita to other nations, noting that the U.S. rate was much lower than most other countries who have also grappled with the coronavirus.
Dr. Deborah Birx, who is coordinating the federal government’s response to the virus, at one point displayed a chart that showed deaths per 100,000 population in the U.S. and other countries. The U.S. rate was below nations like Belgium, Spain, Italy, France, and the Netherlands, and was only above Iran, Germany and China.
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“Does anybody really believe that number,” Trump interjected at one point, pointing to the figure reported by Iran.
“Does anybody really believe this number,” the president asked, referring to the rate reported by China, which stood at the bottom of the chart.
Reports emerged this month that U.S. intelligence believes Beijing underestimated the count of cases in the country.
Trump also continued to defend protests against stay-at-home orders in states like Virginia and Michigan when asked about recent comments by Stephen Moore
Stephen MooreTrump officials lay groundwork for May reopening Sunday shows - 'Our Pearl Harbor moment and our 9/11 moment' Stephen Moore: We're facing another 'Great Depression' MORE, an economist advising the White House on reopening the economy, who is helping to organize a protest of the stay-at-home order in Wisconsin.
“There is a lot of injustice. When you look at Virginia, where they want to take your guns away, they want to violate your second amendment,” Trump said. “I am getting along very nicely with the governor of Michigan, but she has things, ‘don’t buy paint, don’t buy roses, don’t buy’ –she’s got all these crazy things.”
“I just think some of the governors have gotten carried away,” Trump later added. The president also insisted it was an appropriate time to bring up the Second Amendment right in Virginia when asked if linking that to the coronavirus restrictions could potentially cause civil unrest.
“I would say liberate Virginia when that kind of thing happens,” Trump said, referring to recent gun control measures signed into law by Virginia's Democratic governor. “I think it’s a very good analogy.”
Updated 7:44 p.m.
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