Donald Trump Jr says Covid deaths ‘have dropped to almost nothing’ on day 1,000 died and record 91,000 fall ill
DONALD Trump Jr has claimed that Covid deaths “have dropped to almost nothing” – on the same day that 1,000 people in the US died and a record 91,000 contracted the virus.
The president’s son appeared to brush off deadly coronavirus concerns during his interview on Fox News on Thursday night.
“If you look at my Instagram, [Covid deaths have] gone to almost nothing,” he falsely claimed. “We are outperforming Europe in a positive way. We’ve gotten a hold of it.”
His comments come days after White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the United States and the Trump administration are “not going to control the pandemic.”
“We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics, and other mitigations,” Meadows said on Sunday.
On Thursday, Trump Jr slammed CNN for calling his dad’s campaign rallies – where his supporters are often not wearing masks – super-spreader events.
“These people, these people are truly morons,” Trump Jr said.
“I put it on my Instagram a couple of days ago, because I went through the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], because I kept hearing about new infections.
“Why are they talking– why aren’t they talking about deaths? Oh, Oh! Because the numbers are almost nothing, because we’ve gotten control of thing and we understand how it works.”
“We have the therapeutics to deal with it,” he said.
On the same day Trump Jr claimed – just like his father, President Donald Trump, has – the virus wasn’t affecting many people, the US recorded 91,295 new Covid-19 cases.
Coronavirus cases have surged in the US in recent weeks, and it has now tallied at least 8.94million cases – far more than any other country in the world.
In total so far, more than 234,000 people in the US have died from the virus, with more than 1,000 people dying on Wednesday and also Thursday.
The US has averaged more than 75,000 new Covid-19 cases per day over the past week.
In addition, eight states on Thursday reported hitting daily records for new infections.
One of the first states to experience a hike in coronavirus cases this fall, Wisconsin, recorded more than 200 deaths in the past week.
The number of new cases is rising in 42 states.
Nearly half of the states, 21, saw more Covid-19 cases in the seven-day stretch ending on Wednesday than the same time frame at any other point since the pandemic began in March.
Trump Jr then went on to claim that rival Joe Biden’s campaign is “manipulating” the coronavirus crisis.
“That’s all they’ve done. They want to shut down the country,” he said before saying to host Laura Ingraham: “Why don’t we shut down for 10 or 15 years, Laura? Why don’t we do that?”
“Your kid can learn from their iPhone. They can go to school on their phone for the next five years. I’m sure that won’t effect their education.”
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Ingraham pointed out that “there are Covid deaths” and questioned whether those deaths are “rising with the rising case numbers.”
“Well and the rising case numbers…” Trump Jr chimed in, before being cut off by Ingraham who wanted to wrap up the interview.
“The rising case numbers are because they’re testing more. They don’t talk about that either,” Trump Jr falsely claimed.