Trump mentions lost loved ones — then spews lies about the virus for 5 minutes

Donald Trump paid a brief tribute, during his Republican National Convention speech Thursday, to the people who have lost their lives to COVID-19. He then spent nearly five minutes lying about his botched response to the pandemic.

As of Thursday, America leads the world in most cases and most deaths from the coronavirus. More than 5.8 million Americans have contracted the virus and more than 180,000 have died.

But rather than acknowledge his failure to contain the problem, Trump used his speech to brag, exaggerate, and outright lie about his response and Joe Biden’s criticisms of it.

Donald Trump: Many Americans, including me, have sadly lost friends and cherished loved ones to this horrible disease. As one nation, we mourn, we grieve, and we hold in our hearts forever the memories of all of those lives that have been so tragically taken, so unnecessary. In their honor, we will unite. In their memory, we will overcome.

 

And when at the China virus [sic] hit, we launch the largest national mobilization since World War II. Invoking the defense production act,  we produced the world’s largest supply of ventilators. Not a single American who has needed a ventilator has been denied  a ventilator.

 

Good job heading the task force by our great vice president. Thank you very much, Mike. Please stand up.

 

We shipped hundreds of millions of masks, gloves, and gowns to our frontline health care workers. To protect our nation seniors, we rushed supplies, testing kits, and [personnel] to nursing homes. We gave everything you can possibly give and we are still giving it because we are taking care of our senior citizens.

 

The Army Corps of Engineers built field hospitals and the Navy deployed our great hospital ships. We developed from scratch the largest and most advanced testing system anywhere in the world. America has tested more than every country in Europe put together and more than every nation in the western hemisphere combined. Think of that.

 

We have conducted 40 million more tests than the next closest nation, which is India. We developed a wide array of effective treatments, including a powerful antibody treatment known as convalescent plasma. You saw that on Sunday night, when we announced it, that will save thousands and thousands of lives.

Thanks to advances, we have pioneered [sic] the fatality rates, and you look at it, and you look at the numbers. It has been reduced by 80% since April, 80%.

 

The united states as among the lowest case fatality rates of any major country anywhere in the world. The European Union’s case fatality rate is nearly three times higher than ours, but you don’t hear that. They do not write about that, they don’t want to write about that. They do not want you to know those things.

Altogether, the nations of Europe have experienced a 30% greater increase in excess mortality than the United States. Think of that.

 

We enacted the largest package of financial relief in American history. Thanks to our Paycheck Protection Program, we have saved or supported more than 50 million American jobs. That’s one of the reasons that we’re advancing so rapidly. Great job. As a result, we have seen the smallest economic contraction of any major western nation, and we are recovering at a much faster rate than anybody.

 

Over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, and that is a record in the history of country.

 

Unfortunately, from the beginning, our opponents have shown themselves capable of nothing but a partisan ability to criticize. When I took bold action to issue a travel ban on China, very early indeed, Joe Biden called it hysterical and xenophobic. Then I introduced a ban on Europe, very early again. If we had listened to Joe, hundreds of thousands more Americans would have died.

 

Instead of following the science, Joe Biden wants to inflict a painful shutdown on the entire country. His shutdown would inflict unthinkable and lasting harm on our nation’s children, families and citizens of all backgrounds. The cost of the Biden shutdown would be measured in increased drug overdoses, depression, alcohol addiction, suicides, heart attacks, economic devastation, job loss, and much more. Joe Biden’s plan is not a solution to the virus, but rather it is a surrender to the virus.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.