During a March 22, 2020 COVID-19 press conference Trump was told that four US Senators were in isolation, including Utah US Senator Mitt Romney. He replied, “Romney’s in isolation? Gee, that’s too bad.”
Romney was the sole Republican Senator to vote to impeach Trump earlier in the year.
During a Fox News virtual town hall meeting, Trump said, “I think we’re doing very well, but you know, it’s a two way street. They have to treat us well also. They can’t say, oh gee we should get this, we should get that. We’re doing a great job.”
During a Fox News virtual Town Hall in which he claimed that America would suffer more deaths from economic closures than COVID19, Trump also attacked Cuomo for failing to purchase 15,000 ventilators. The remarks came amid the governor’s remarks that the state would need 30,000 more, which Trump said he didn’t believe.
Trump explained, “We’re building them hospitals, we’re building them medical centers, and he was complaining about – we’re doing probably more, definitely more for him than anybody else, and, uh, he was talking about the ventilators, but he should’ve ordered the ventilators. And he had a choice, he had a chance because right here, I just got this out that he refused to order 15,000 ventilators. I’ll show this to Bill, take a look at that, Bill, what does that say?” The host he was passing it to, Bill Hemmer, declined to take the paper, remarking, “Is this social distancing, here?”
Trump was referencing far-right conspiracy blog Gateway Pundit. However, there was never any option or suggestion to purchase 15,000 ventilators. The New York Department of Health reported in 2015 that the state would have a shortage of about 15,000 ventilators if a pandemic like the 1918 Spanish flu arose, and also noted that this would be largely due to supply shortages across the country.
Cuomo explained, There is no state in the United States that bought ventilators for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The federal government did not buy ventilators for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Nobody in the world bought ventilators in preparation for a 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.”
During a virtual town hall on Fox News, Trump said about business closures without evidence that “more people are going to die if we allow this to continue.”
He went on to say, “We have to open this country up. We can socially distance ourselves and go to work, and you’ll have to work a little bit harder and you can clean your hands five times more than you’re used to. You don’t have to shake hands anymore with people. We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu – we never turn the country off. We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We don’t call up automobile companies and say ‘stop making cars.”
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
He seemed to indicate that the only reason he allowed such measures in the first place was because of criticism if he hadn’t. “If I would have not done it, we would’ve been unbelievably criticized for not doing it. Somehow the word got out that this is the thing we’re supposed to be doing.”
Trump planned to reopen the economy nationwide by Easter. At the time, the United States had over 65,000 confirmed cases.
The remark was amid a press conference on the COVID19 pandemic. When asking reporters if there were any questions for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump said, “I’d like him to go back to the State Department, or as they call it, the Deep State department – if you don’t mind – I’d lie to have him go back and do his job.”
The deep state is a conspiracy theory Trump has commonly employed, which references a secret cabal within the government.
It prompted an incredulous reaction from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Trump called into Sean Hannity’s Fox News show to counter New York’s request for more ventilators amid the COVID19 outbreak. New York governor Andrew Cuomo had previously called for the equipment in preparation for an expected surge in cases, and that the only way they could procure more was from the federal government. At the time of Trump’s remarks, the state of New York had over 37,000 confirmed cases and 300 deaths.
Blagojevich was convicted of a pay to play scheme where he tried to sell one of Illinois’ US Senate seats, and was sentenced to 14 years. Blagojevich, who had appeared on Celebrity Apprentice, had served 8 years.
Trump alleged that the sentence was unfair because of its length, and because the investigation was conducted under FBI leadership that also investigated Russian election interference, saying, “It was a prosecution by the same people — Comey, Fitzpatrick — the same group.”
JUST IN: Pres. Trump says he has commuted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's sentence, calling it a "tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence," and claiming "it was a prosecution by the same people, Comey, Fitzpatrick, the same group." https://t.co/HH71d2cc41pic.twitter.com/03011c270V
In advance of Hurricane Dorian, a White House source to Axios claimed that Trump said, “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?” The source said that everyone present was shocked by the suggestion.
Trump immediately called the report fake news, even though a senior White House official defended his suggestion by saying, “His goal — to keep a catastrophic hurricane from hitting the mainland — is not bad. His objective is not bad.”
Trump went on to suggest he’d not even heard of Axios, the outlet that broke the story, despite having had multiple interviews with them and tweeting their stories in the past.
The story by Axios that President Trump wanted to blow up large hurricanes with nuclear weapons prior to reaching shore is ridiculous. I never said this. Just more FAKE NEWS!
Axios (whatever that is) sat back and said GEEEEE, let’s see, what can we make up today to embarrass the President? Then they said, “why don’t we say he wants to bomb a hurricane, that should do it!” The media in our Country is totally out of control!
In an August, 2019 briefing on the approaching Hurricane Dorian, Trump claimed that Alabama would be affected:
And, I will say, the states — and it may get a little piece of a great place: It’s called Alabama. And Alabama could even be in for at least some very strong winds and something more than that, it could be. This just came up, unfortunately. It’s the size of — the storm that we’re talking about. So, for Alabama, just please be careful also.
The National Weather Service tweeted that this was in fact not the case. While 5 states declared national emergencies in advance of the hurricane, Alabama was not among them.
Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east. #alwx
After multiple days of tweeting about how he was right, Trump displayed a hurricane map that appeared to be altered by Sharpie to extend the path into Alabama. It quickly became termed “Sharpiegate.”
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
When questioned about this, Trump claimed he knew nothing about it.
REPORTER: That map you showed us today, it looked like it almost had like a Sharpie on it.
Two days later, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an agency within the Department of Commerce, issued an unsigned statement siding with Trump’s claims about Alabama. Shortly after, the New York Times reported that US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, had threatened the head of the NOAA with firings unless they publicly supported Trump’s claims.
In June, 2020, the Department of Commerce’s inspector general released a report on the issue. It confirmed that “the Department and NOAA issued the Statement in response to a request by the White House then-acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.”
The inspector general’s report further concluded that “the Statement undercut the NWS’s forecasts and potentially undercut public trust in NOAA’s and the NWS’s science and the apolitical nature of that science.”
A separate report by the National Academy of Public Administration found that NOAA’s scientific integrity had been compromised “intentionally, knowingly, or in reckless disregard.”
