Trump boosts baseless claim that CDC is lying to make him lose the election

Donald Trump retweeted a supporter’s attack on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday morning, spreading a false claim that the agency is lying about the coronavirus to hurt Trump’s election chances.

Chuck Woolery, a former game show host and Trump supporter, tweeted on Sunday night: “The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it.”

Trump retweeted the claim, along with two more Woolery tweets, on Monday morning.

While Trump has frequently accused the media and his Democratic opponents of lying, he has shared information from the CDC on his Twitter feed more than 30 times since the start of the pandemic.

His most recent such retweet came on Saturday, when he shared a story quoting the CDC’s director — Trump appointee Dr. Robert Redfield — talking about school reopening.

Last month, Trump retweeted Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) sharing where “Information about the #coronavirus and how to protect yourself can be found” on the CDC website.

In April and May, he retweeted the main CDC Twitter account as well as @CDCDirector and @CDCtravel information on the virus on 16 occasions. These included information about symptoms, social distancing, travel safety, safe funerals and burials, pets, and household cleaners.

In March, Trump’s tweets and retweets cited the agency at more than a dozen more times, including sharing the CDC’s “published guidelines” to “enable every American to respond to this epidemic and to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.”

Last week, Trump publicly disagreed with the CDC’s guidelines for how to safely reopen schools, calling them “impractical” and promising that he would “be meeting with them.” Redfield said Thursday that the agency would issue additional guidelines, but would not scrap the ones Trump criticized.

The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry about Trump’s Monday retweet.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.