Trump said that sending people back to work during the coronavirus epidemic is no big deal because people also die from the flu and car accidents.
Trump said during a Fox News virtual town hall, “Look, we lose thousands, I brought some numbers here. We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu. We don’t turn the country off. I mean every year, now when I heard the number, 37,000 people a year, can you believe that? This year we’re having a bad flu season, but we lose thousands of people a year to the flu. We never turned the country off. We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We didn’t call up the automobile companies and say stop making cars. We don’t want any cars anymore. We have to get back to work.”
Video:
Trump suggests going back to work during a pandemic is really no big deal because lots of people die from the flu and car accidents pic.twitter.com/pRTjmLH7xo
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 24, 2020
The coronavirus is exponentially more deadly than the flu, but there is no vaccine or cure. The coronavirus also spreads more easily than the flu. The country responded to the rise in auto accident fatalities with seat belt laws and other safety measures.
Trump is suggesting that the coronavirus is no big deal, some people are going to die, so that shouldn’t stop the country from getting back to work.
The big thing to remember is that Donald Trump doesn’t have the power to lift the state restrictions. He can talk about reopening the economy, but there is nothing that he can do to force the states to lift the public health restrictions.
Trump is jeopardizing American lives because he is worried about his reelection campaign. The recession is coming no matter what Trump says, but the rhetoric that the president is spreading is dangerous and will get people killed.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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