Pelosi Says: ‘Yes,” She Is Blaming Some COVID-19 Deaths on Trump

 By CNSNews.com Staff | March 29, 2020 | 6:38pm EDT 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union” today that, “yes,” she is blaming some COVID-19 deaths on President Donald Trump.

CNN host Jake Tapper said of Trump to Pelosi: “He obviously downplayed the risks of coronavirus for several weeks. And it wasn’t until I think about two weeks ago that he started acknowledging the gravity of the crisis. But are you saying that his downplaying ultimately cost American lives?

“Yes, I am,” Pelosi responded.

“I’m saying that, because when he made–the other day, when he was signing the bill, he said, just think, 20 days ago, everything was great,” Pelosi continued

“No, everything wasn’t great,” she said. “We had nearly 500 cases and 17 deaths already. And in that 20 days, because we weren’t prepared, we now have 2,000 deaths and 100,000 cases.”

Jake Tapper: “President Trump is considering relaxing federal guidelines for coronavirus for some of the less affected parts of the country. Do you think he should?

At the beginning of her interview with Tapper on CNN, Pelosi had volunteered that several things President Trump has done were “deadly” in her view.

“What the president–his denial at the beginning was deadly. His delaying of getting equipment to where–it continues–his delay in getting equipment to where it’s needed is deadly,” she told Tapper.

“But as the president fiddles, people are dying. And we have to, we just have to take every precaution,” she also said.

Here is a transcript of part of Pelosi’s interview on CNN’s “State of the Union:”

Jake Tapper: “Speaker Pelosi, thank you so much for joining us. I hope you are well and safe.

“I know your home district of San Francisco has been particularly hard- hit. President Trump is considering relaxing federal guidelines for coronavirus for some of the less affected parts of the country. Do you think he should?”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “Well, first of all, let me just say how sad it is that, even since the president signing of the bill, the number of deaths reported has doubled from 1,000 to 2,000 in our country.

“This is such a very, very sad time for us. So, we should be taking every precaution.

“What the president–his denial at the beginning was deadly. His delaying of getting equipment to where–it continues–his delay in getting equipment to where it’s needed is deadly.

“And now I think the best thing would be to do is to prevent more loss of life, rather than open things up, so that–because we just don’t know. We have to have testing, testing, testing. That’s what we said from the start–before we can evaluate what the nature of it is in some of these other regions as well.

“I don’t know what the purpose of that is. I don’t know what the scientists are saying to him. I don’t know what the scientists said to him. When did this president know about this and what did he know? What did he know and when did he know it?

“That’s for an after-action review. But as the president fiddles, people are dying. And we have to, we just have to take every precaution.

Tapper: ”Speaker Pelosi, when you say that the president’s denial was deadly–

Pelosi: “Yes.”

Tapper: “–He obviously downplayed the risks of coronavirus for several weeks. And it wasn’t until I think about two weeks ago that he started acknowledging the gravity of the crisis.

“But are you saying that his downplaying ultimately cost American lives?

Pelosi: “Yes, I am. I’m saying that, because when he made–the other day, when he was signing the bill, he said, just think, 20 days ago, everything was great.

‘No, everything wasn’t great. We had nearly 500 cases and 17 deaths already. And in that 20 days, because we weren’t prepared, we now have 2,000 deaths and 100,000 cases.”