Trump stokes “Fire Fauci” chant, falsely says US “rounding the turn”

Enlarge / ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA - OCTOBER 31: A staff member works at a polling station during early voting for the US Presidential election on October 31, 2020 in Arlington, United States. (credit: Getty | Chen Mengtong)

We're 10 months into the pandemic and the outlook for the United States is worse than ever. Coronavirus cases are spiking to unseen levels across the country, with a record of nearly over 97,000 cases reported on Friday alone. As hospitals in dozens of states begin filling, health experts look wearily to the weeks ahead. Cold weather and a series of holidays will undoubtedly bring people indoors and together, showering gasoline on the current inferno of disease transmission.

Yet despite the grim reality, President Donald Trump and his administration have spent the last days before the presidential election not addressing the dire crisis but instead downplaying the tragedy and attacking public health experts and frontline workers. Trump's coronavirus advisor, Scott Atlas, even appeared on a Russian propaganda television show to defend the administration's response, in which he echoed his previous false and misleading claims about the pandemic.

On Friday, Trump himself falsely claimed doctors are inflating the number of coronavirus deaths for money. In response, the president of the American Medical Association, Susan Bailey, called Trump's false statement malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided."

Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments