GOP congressman: If we don't blame China for virus, people will blame Trump

Recent polling has shown that a majority of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak. ABC News recently found that 55% disapprove of Trump’s response, an increase of 12 percentage points since the middle of March.

At the same time, Trump has blamed China for his administration’s slow response to the outbreak. He repeatedly referred to it as the “Chinese” virus and released a racist campaign ad with a similar message. He repeatedly refers to it incorrectly as the “Chinese virus” even as experts have warned against it. The World Health Organization says that naming viruses after a geographic location is wrong, as it causes unfair stigmatization of people who have nothing to do with the outbreak and its spread.

From the April 14 edition of Steve Bannon’s far-right podcast “War Room”:

STEVE BANNON, host: If you were talking to President Trump, what would be the two or three things you would recommend to start to hold this CCP [Communist Party of China] accountable for this?

 

REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN): Well first of all, I’ve had literally hundreds of conversations with business leaders, with elected officials, with families right here in northeast Indiana — I’m in Fort Wayne at my district office right now, Steve — and my constituents are loud and clear: They want someone to be held accountable for what they’re enduring at the moment.

 

Whether it’s the financial losses, unemployment, or small family-owned businesses that are losing everything that they have because of what the – of the CCP’s negligence. They’re either going to blame the CCP or they’re going to blame President Trump as the left wants them to blame.

 

So, my encouragement to President Trump and his advisers is to go down every path that we can to draw attention to the CCP’s negligence, hold them accountable, and going through an international court of law is one avenue that we have carved out.

 

Now, you and I probably distrust equally the U.N. as an international organization, but if they’re good for anything, they should be good for this. This is an opportunity for them to redeem themselves as a reputable organization. If they don’t do that then we should draw attention to the U.N.’s — another example of their failed efforts to do what they were intended to do and their initial purpose.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.