One of the most consequential moments from former President Donald Trump's time in the White House was his administration's handling of the pandemic that's gone on to kill more than 600 thousand Americans.
Trump admitted to deliberately downplaying the virus in its early days, hoping to preserve the economy. He and his allies constantly undermined findings from his own officials and politicized basic safety measures, such as wearing masks and limiting gatherings.
One Stanford University study found that Trump's decision to continue holding packed campaign rallies during the pandemic led to at least 30 thousand cases of the virus.
Nevertheless, Trump is still trying to sanitize his pandemic legacy, defending his administration's policy in a recent Fox Business interview.
Trump: 'We did a great job on Covid'www.youtube.com
Trump said:
"We did a great job on Covid, including the fact that I got a vaccine in less than nine months, which would have taken five years. But we did a great job."
He continued:
"Without me, you wouldn't have [the vaccine] for five years and you would have had millions of people throughout the world dead. You would have lost millions and millions of people."
Early last year, before the outbreak of the virus spiraled out of control, officials said that millions of Americans would have died of the virus if no official at the federal, state, or municipal level intervened in any way whatsoever.
Trump has cited this when falsely claiming his policies saved millions of lives.
Trump's boast that he did a "great job" on the pandemic was met with widespread disagreement.
The half over 1/2 million people that died on his watch feel differently.https://twitter.com/rawstory/status/1432705103459504134\u00a0\u2026— Robbin \u00af\_(\u30c4)_/\u00af DOUBLE VACCINATED \ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89& proud! (@Robbin \u00af\_(\u30c4)_/\u00af DOUBLE VACCINATED \ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89& proud!) 1630418723
How about 600k plus deathhttps://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1432705103459504134\u00a0\u2026— Liss_Sassy ~\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8~NEVER FORGET 1/6/21~\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Liss_Sassy ~\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8~NEVER FORGET 1/6/21~\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1630418671
All gaslighting all the time— John Ryan (@John Ryan) 1630418578
Over 600,000 DEAD!!!!— MysticalShaman (@MysticalShaman) 1630420110
Some said he only did a great job at promoting the virus.
For a death cult, half-million dead is a "great job."https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-stuart-varney/\u00a0\u2026— Tea Pain (@Tea Pain) 1630418572
He did a great job of spreading covid19— Unveiled Philly (@Unveiled Philly) 1630420764
On spreading it maybe, he did nothing in helping to talk his followers off the ledge of insanity and to do what\u2019s right for our country by getting vaccinated, wearing masks!— joethelion (@joethelion) 1630418756
If he means Saved (cuz they went \u201cto heaven\u201d) the yeah.https://twitter.com/rawstory/status/1432705103459504134\u00a0\u2026— CaleenJensen (@CaleenJensen) 1630426812
Counties who largely voted for Trump also tend to be hardest-hit by the virus.
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