In one of his his most recent lies President Donald Trump now says he’s always known and felt the coronavirus crisis is a pandemic.
In Tuesday’s coronavirus press conference Trump was asked about his new tone this week. The President appears, at least during these press events, to acknowledge the pandemic is a crisis. But he has spent months denying its severity, and dismissing it as a “hoax.”
“I have seen that, where people actually liked it,” he said Tuesday of his lies about coronavirus. “But I didn’t feel different. I’ve always known this is a real – this is a pandemic.”
“I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic,” he lied.
Countless news reports make clear that’s a lie.
The New York Times has documented in one article what Trump has been saying about the coronavirus.
His first recorded remarks were on January 22.
“Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?” a reporter asked Turmp.
“No. Not at all,” the president replied. “And we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
There’s more. Like this:
On Jan. 24, he tweeted, “It will all work out well.” On Jan. 28, he retweeted a headline from One America News, an outlet with a history of spreading false conspiracy theories: “Johnson & Johnson to create coronavirus vaccine.” On Jan. 30, during a speech in Michigan, he said: “We have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully.”
Back in February at a campaign rally Trump called the coronavirus the Democrats “new hoax.”
From the beginning he has spent months minimizing the crisis – including not pushing and trying to minimize the number of tests in an effort to improve his re-election chances.