Trump administration officials are accusing liberals of politicizing the coronavirus – Vox.com

The novel coronavirus and Covid-19, the disease it causes, have become a global health issue. But increasingly for President Donald Trump, a member of his family, and his administration officials, the virus is being seen as a weapon the presidents enemies hope to use against him as much as it is a public health concern.

The presidents son, Donald Trump, Jr., offered the most pointed encapsulation of this view on Friday, when he told Fox News that Democrats seemingly hope that it comes here, and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trumps streak of winning.

No elected official, Democratic or otherwise, have said any such thing. Some Democrats and some Republicans have, however, been critical of the Trump administrations response to the coronavirus. Republican Sen. Richard Shelby and Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have both called on the administration to spend more to combat the virus, for example.

Despite this, on Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence who is in charge of the White Houses efforts to deal with the outbreak defended the presidents sons remarks as understandable.

This is no time for politics. And frankly, I think that was Don Jr.s point: that there has been some very strong rhetoric directed at the president by some members of Congress, Pence told CNNs Jake Tapper. But responding to the kind of things that have been hurled is understandable.

Pences defense of the presidents son is just one of several examples of how he and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar argued on the Sunday morning that Democrats and liberal commentators not the Trump administration or the right were to blame for the politicization of the coronavirus.

When NBCs Chuck Todd questioned Pence on Meet the Press over politicizing rhetoric on the right, such as right-wing radio host Rush Limbaughs claim that Democrats have weaponized the coronavirus as well as Trump Jr.s inflammatory remarks, Pence declined to condemn them. Instead he drew attention to liberals.

Pence said Trump Jr. was pushing back at Trump critics, and that its time for the other side to turn down the volume.

Pence cited Gail Collinss New York Times column entitled, Lets call it Trumpvirus as an example of how there have been irresponsible voices on the left criticizing the president. Beyond pressure from Democrats for the administration to speed and better fund its response efforts, it is not clear what volume Pence was referring to.

Trump himself has claimed that criticism of his handling of coronavirus in the US is part of a Democratic Party hoax.

One of my people came up to me and said, Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didnt work out too well. They couldnt do it, the president said at a rally in South Carolina Friday. They tried the impeachment hoax. And this is their new hoax.

At a Saturday press conference, the president made it clear he used the word hoax in connection to the coronavirus which has killed at least 2,990 people globally and infected at least 22 people in the US because he felt his administrations work was being attacked.

When questioned over the use of the term hoax on Saturday, Trump said that it referred to the action that [Democrats] take to try to pin this on somebody because weve done such a good job.

He added, I dont like it when they are criticizing [government officials], and thats the hoax.

When ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Azar about Trumps use of the term hoax, Sunday Azar deflected.

Hes talking about the partisan sniping that were seeing, its unnecessary, we dont need to have this made a political issue, Azar said. Were in a public health crisis here, we need to all be banding together.

The partisan sniping seems to be one-sided but the coronavirus does inarguably call for banding together. There is still much that isnt known about it, and new cases within the US are being reported daily. It is true that the US has far fewer Covid-19 cases than other countries, but that does not make the president and his allies use of the virus to to attack political rivals any less worrying or any less of a distraction from life-or-death work that needs to be done.

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Trump administration officials are accusing liberals of politicizing the coronavirus - Vox.com