Trump suddenly wants you to know how many Americans have died from virus

Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized former first lady Michelle Obama’s acclaimed speech the night before at the Democratic National Convention, claiming her remarks were bad because Obama had taped the speech when the death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic was 20,000 people lower than the current death tally.

In her speech Monday night, Obama slammed Trump as unfit and unable to govern, saying his coronavirus response has proven he is “in over his head,” noting, “More than 150,000 people have died, and our economy is in shambles because of a virus that this president downplayed for too long.”

“She was over her head, and frankly, she should’ve made the speech live, which she didn’t do, she taped it. And it was not only taped, it was taped a long time ago, because she had the wrong deaths,” Trump said Tuesday morning after issuing a pardon for 19th-century suffragist Susan B. Anthony for voting when women were prohibited from doing so, a naked attempt to score political points with the women voters whom Trump is losing badly as he heads into the 2020 election.

While Obama was correct that more than 150,000 people have died from the virus in the United States, the death toll is now currently 170,451 — higher than in any other country.

Trump’s attacks on Obama’s speech for undercounting the coronavirus death toll is a new twist for a number of reasons.

Trump is reminding the country that more than 170,000 people have died as a result of the virus, with public health experts saying Trump’s bungled response to it is partly to blame for the massive number of people the virus has killed in the United States.

The attack also cuts against another of Trump’s false narratives throughout the pandemic, that the coronavirus death toll is, as Axios reported he told his aides in May, actually lower than the official count.

Later in May, Trump repeated his claim that the official virus death count was “inflated” — even as experts said that count is actually lower than the actual number of deaths.

Trump’s attack on Obama for saying the death toll was only 150,000 when it’s actually 170,000 mirrors one that Fox News made on Tuesday morning. Host Bret Baier said one of the “problems” with Obama’s speech was, “She mentions the COVID deaths and references 150,000. Obviously we’re up to 170,000 now.”

Trump then turned from attacking Obama to blaming others for coronavirus death toll.

Trump said of New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, “A horrible Governor. Crime is taking over NYC & State, everyone is leaving. He is after the NRA – They should move to Texas or elsewhere, and must get tough. Cuomo killed 11,000 people in nursing homes alone. Crooked & Incompetent!”

He neglected to mention his own role in protecting American citizens as the current occupant of the White House.

But Trump has long shown interest in helping only those states whose governors are “appreciative” and acknowledge that “We’ve done a great job.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.