President Donald Trump drew scorn on Twitter with his latest attempt to mislead Americans about the coronavirus pandemic. Trump, whose administration has been fiercely criticized for downplaying the threat and mishandling the federal response to the public health crisis, on Wednesday said it “snuck upon us.”
A day earlier, the president claimed he’d “always known” it was a pandemic and even “felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”
Tweeters rebuked Donald Trump over his continued contradictory statements, reminding him how warnings about the virus had actually been circulating since early January. Trump initially dismissed the threat, saying it was under control in the U.S. and might disappear in warm weather.
I feel like we can say a lot of things about the coronavirus. That it snuck up on us isn’t one. We literally saw it coming. For months.
— Vicky Nguyen (@VickyNguyenTV) March 18, 2020
Trump just said it again — that the pandemic “snuck up on us.” It’s not true. Top intel officials and experts warned that the US was vulnerable to a global pandemic like #COVID. See previous tweets that quote the @ODNIgov assessment from 2019. https://t.co/vedvKvZed2
— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) March 18, 2020
This is from February 12.
Trump today: “It snuck up on us.”
He is a gaslighting LIAR, and his dithering cost American lives. #TrumpVirus https://t.co/bXKCNCw3Np
— Shelly (@TexHellCat) March 18, 2020
“It snuck up on us.” Trump during today’s presser. No, it did not. This was a major problem in China in December.
— jburcum (@jburcum) March 18, 2020
The arc of Trump’s coronavirus responses:
-There’s nothing to worry about.
-It’s a Democratic Hoax
-It’ll be over by April
-It’s a pandemic
-I take no responsibility
-I always knew it was a pandemic
-This snuck up on us
-I’m just gonna be racist— Adam Lance Garcia (@AdamLanceGarcia) March 18, 2020
Still with the lies, self-justification, whingeing and of course the xenophobia. Always the xenophobia. Also we have no “borders” with China. He is using that word to trigger his base. So much for that “change in tone…” https://t.co/xy65HzjQyH
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 18, 2020
