President Donald Trump shocked the nation last week when he floated the idea of a possible injection of disinfectants like bleach or isopropyl alcohol as a cure for the virus that's killed nearly 60 thousand Americans and upended daily life in the United States.
Trump's comments came at a Thursday press briefing after a presentation on the effectiveness of disinfectant killing the virus on surfaces.
The President said:
"I see the disinfectant knocks it out in a minute, one minute. Is there a way we can do something like that? By injection, inside or almost a cleaning? Cause you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it'd be interesting to check that. You're gonna have to use medical doctors, right? But it sounds interesting to me."
Trump has since falsely claimed that he was only being sarcastic, while his press secretary said the comments were taken out of context.
In the hours after Trump's remarks, calls to a New York City poison control center doubled with situations involving Lysol or other brands of household cleaner.
Trump was asked about this spike in a press briefing on Monday.
When alerted of the spike, Trump responded:
"I can't imagine why. I can't imagine why."
Trump—as usual—denied any responsibility, and pretended that floating bogus cures in front of a national audience had no effect on people's actions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wasn't having it.
The Speaker called him out on Twitter, decrying him as "weak."
This isn't the first time the President has refused to take responsibility. The President infamously said "I don't take responsibility at all" when asked about his CDC's bungled testing rollout that delayed an accurate count of the virus by weeks.
People agreed with Pelosi's take.
"Weak" was the perfect descriptor.
For a deeper look into the dangers of the Trump presidency, check out A Very Stable Genius, available here.
