Trump faults China for coronavirus' spread, says U.S. investigating

 

U.S. President Donald Trump addresses a coronavirus response news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that China could have stopped the coronavirus before it swept the globe and said his administration was conducting "serious investigations" into what happened.

 

"We're doing very serious investigations ... We are not happy with China," Trump said at a White House news conference.

 

"There are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable."

 

"We believe it could have been stopped at the source. It could have been stopped quickly and it wouldn't have spread all over the world."

 

Trump's criticism was the latest from his administration to target China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which began late last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has grown into a global pandemic.

 

Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States "strongly believed" Beijing failed to report the outbreak in a timely manner and covered up how dangerous the respiratory illness caused by the virus was.

 

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Twitter on Monday Pompeo should "stop playing the political game. Better save energy on saving lives."

 

The coronavirus outbreak has killed more than 207,000 people around the world, including more than 55,000 in the United States, according to a Reuters tally.

 

Earlier on Monday, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro accused China of sending low-quality and even counterfeit coronavirus antibody testing kits to the United States and of "profiteering" from the pandemic.

 

Navarro, an outspoken critic of Beijing whom Trump has appointed to work on supply-line issues relating to the health crisis, said more testing both for the virus and antibodies was vital to getting Americans currently in lockdown back to work.

 

"That's where, perhaps, we can find people who are immune, that can be in the workplace in a more safe environment. But we can't have China, for example, bringing in those fake tests and counterfeit tests, because that's going to be very disruptive," Navarro said in an interview on Fox News.

 

"There's a lot of these antibody tests coming in from China now that are low quality, false readings and things like that," he said.

 

The United States is heavily reliant on China for basic equipment and drugs.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Tim Ahmann; Editing by Chris Reese and Sonya Hepinstall)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-28

 

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He is right in that China was slow in recognising what was happening. But as soon as they realised they took draconian measures and managed to contain it. And more than 2 months later the US was still downplaying it.

 

So yes, in hindsight China was late, but the US had a lot of time to react and that time was wasted.

 

So this is the usual deflection game again. 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

There are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable."

There a lot to hold you accountable for hallowing the CDC budget and dismantling various government units designed to lead the way in which corona virus spread. You should also be held accountable for the delay in the preparation of policies and medical supplies including testing inadequate. There should also be accountability for your inability to rally the people with your poor messaging and confusion created by your daily briefing.  

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Earlier on Monday, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro accused China of sending low-quality and even counterfeit coronavirus antibody testing kits to the United States and of "profiteering" from the pandemic.

Plain old profiteering...….or undermining the testing programme to ensure more are infected?

He will go down as a one statement right president ????

Some troll posts have been removed. 

He's right of course, and plenty of missing Chinese citizen's and investigative reporters to underscore the tactics China is using to cover-up their culpability, but Trump was very late to the game as well. The world should hold China accountable just as the US public should hold the Trump Administration accountable. 

5 minutes ago, Silencer said:

but Trump was very late to the game as well.

But that's not what Trump and his followers are going to push, they are going to put 100% of the blame on China.

 

Here's a very interesting article about Trump's WH news briefings, by the way: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/26/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-briefings-analyzed.html

 

It basically comes down to this (spoiler alert!):

 

By far the most recurring utterances from Mr. Trump in the briefings are self-congratulations, roughly 600 of them, which are often predicated on exaggerations and falsehoods. He does credit others (more than 360 times) for their work, but he also blames others (more than 110 times) for inadequacies in the state and federal response.
Mr. Trump’s attempts to display empathy or appeal to national unity (about 160 instances) amount to only a quarter of the number of times he complimented himself or a top member of his team.

7 hours ago, stevenl said:

He is right in that China was slow in recognising what was happening. But as soon as they realised they took draconian measures and managed to contain it. And more than 2 months later the US was still downplaying it.

 

So yes, in hindsight China was late, but the US had a lot of time to react and that time was wasted.

 

So this is the usual deflection game again. 

What?!?!?!  All you can say is "China was slow in recognising" the pandemic?  Have you heard nothing of the documented facts that China was covering up?

 

To top it off you then blame Trump for downplaying it?  My God, man, where do you get your news from?

 

China good, Trump bad.  Geezus, this is really getting tiresome and stale.

US and Australia should be joining to give them a double barrel shock of investigation.

1 hour ago, Tippaporn said:

What?!?!?!  All you can say is "China was slow in recognising" the pandemic?  Have you heard nothing of the documented facts that China was covering up?

 

To top it off you then blame Trump for downplaying it?  My God, man, where do you get your news from?

 

China good, Trump bad.  Geezus, this is really getting tiresome and stale.

I am still waiting for the actions US took in February till mid march. Golfing and campaign rallies don't count.

Trump forgets that China has the largest share of US debt.

3 minutes ago, stevenl said:

I am still waiting for the actions US took in February till mid march. Golfing and campaign rallies don't count.

Why wait?  Research yourself.  Just don't use NY Times, WaPo, Time, Newsweek, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Huffington Post, Vox, CNN, the Daily Beast, BuzzFeed (to name a few).  They'll only tell you a story.

4 minutes ago, than said:

Trump forgets that China has the largest share of US debt.

Well maybe they can keep that for free..if merica just says its payment for the WuFlu.

Just now, Tippaporn said:

Why wait?  Research yourself.  Just don't use NY Times, WaPo, Time, Newsweek, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Huffington Post, Vox, CNN, the Daily Beast, BuzzFeed (to name a few).  They'll only tell you a story.

And again no answer.

 

It is an easy answer though: US did nothing but downplaying.

Liberals dislike President Trump, so it also seems they like the CCP.  No surprise.

12 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

Liberals dislike President Trump, so it also seems they like the CCP.  No surprise.

So disagreeing with Trump means loving China. Strange conclusion.

I've read in the Gateway Pundit that the American, Anthony Fauci paid out some $3.7 million or perhaps it was $37 million to a Wuhan Laboratory. Hunt it down on the Gateway Pundit. The USA knew as early as November 2019 of this SARS-COV-2 and failed to do anything about it at the time safe to inform israel. GO FIGURE!

2 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

To top it off you then blame Trump for downplaying it?  My God, man, where do you get your news from?

Oh the Irony!????

 

During this period, as a faithful Trump follower, you have been downplaying the epidemic in this forum, claiming that MSM were exaggerating risks in order to create panic, that it was just another flu, etc....

Edited April 28, 20206 yr by candide

2 hours ago, stevenl said:

And again no answer.

 

It is an easy answer though: US did nothing but downplaying.

 

6 minutes ago, samran said:

Gawd, another American who equates holding an opposing view as akin to communism. 
 

He shields the orange man all the time and blames everyone other than the guilty one. But don't let me hold him accountable either LOL

Pure deflecting no more no less just plant the idea the rubes will spread it all he has to do is create doubt it can be unfounded that’s ok just create doubt it’s what he does 

Edited April 28, 20206 yr by Tug

damn right, trump would not look like a chump if the ccp had not intentionally spread this wuhan virus to the world..... the evil the ccp is spreading is malicious, intentional and very effective, i just hope the don makes them pay big time so the ccp loses its grip and china gets new leadership!  go the don!

11 hours ago, Magenta408 said:

I've read in the Gateway Pundit that the American, Anthony Fauci paid out some $3.7 million or perhaps it was $37 million to a Wuhan Laboratory. Hunt it down on the Gateway Pundit. The USA knew as early as November 2019 of this SARS-COV-2 and failed to do anything about it at the time safe to inform israel. GO FIGURE!

Gateway Pundit is deeply 'conservative', pro trump & promotes conspiracy theories. I tracked down the article. Gateway Pundit is coordinating politically motivated attacks on Fauci as per usual with right of centre media. Read some of the letters in the article, they have utilised spin in their commentary.

 

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/breaking-dr-fauci-obama-admin-gave-wuhan-lab-3-7-million-top-dr-shi-zhengli-us-project-shut-sent-back-china/

Edited April 28, 20206 yr by simple1

3 hours ago, honcho said:

damn right, trump would not look like a chump if the ccp had not intentionally spread this wuhan virus to the world..... the evil the ccp is spreading is malicious, intentional and very effective, i just hope the don makes them pay big time so the ccp loses its grip and china gets new leadership!  go the don!

How about all the warnings your boy Trump got? I know in Canada the federal health dept was made aware of the China situation in Dec. 2019. There  is zero chance that Trump was first informed later than that. Trump has a lot of blood on his hands that's why all this deflecting. This silver spooner  has never taken responsibility for anything in his in his entire life.  He is not about to start to now. 

 

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/President-s-intelligence-briefing-book-repeatedly-15229783.phpy

 

For those keeping track the Trump virus American death count stands at 58,126.

Edited April 28, 20206 yr by pegman

A post containing content that was copy and pasted from some site has been removed:

 

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Some off topic posts and the replies have been removed.

 

A post using a trolling representation of President Trump's name has been removed.  If you do not want your posts to be removed, please learn to spell people's names correctly.

 

23 hours ago, than said:

Trump forgets that China has the largest share of US debt.

Not only does China not own the largest share of US debt, it doesn't even rank first among foreign countries. That position belongs to japan. China holds about 5 percent of total US debt.

14 hours ago, honcho said:

damn right, trump would not look like a chump if the ccp had not intentionally spread this wuhan virus to the world..... the evil the ccp is spreading is malicious, intentional and very effective, i just hope the don makes them pay big time so the ccp loses its grip and china gets new leadership!  go the don!

And yet there were many world leaders whom the CCP did not make look like chumps. How do you explain that discrepancy?

22 hours ago, Magenta408 said:

I've read in the Gateway Pundit that the American, Anthony Fauci paid out some $3.7 million or perhaps it was $37 million to a Wuhan Laboratory. Hunt it down on the Gateway Pundit. The USA knew as early as November 2019 of this SARS-COV-2 and failed to do anything about it at the time safe to inform israel. GO FIGURE!

Here's a link to some of the false stories promoted by Gateway Pundit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gateway_Pundit

A post containing a video from a late night comedy show and a reply has been removed.  A late night comedy show is not a credible source of news. 

On 4/28/2020 at 5:25 PM, than said:

Trump forgets that China has the largest share of US debt.

Many countries have defaulted on debt. Russia, Argentina and Pakistan have done so.