Two prominent Congressional Democrats blasted President Trump as “anti-science” Monday.
“Your continued anti-science rhetoric has cost lives and continues to put the health and wellbeing of every person in this country at risk,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. and Sen. Patty Murray wrote in a letter to Trump. Pallone is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Murray is the ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
Pallone and Murray accused the president of limiting the ability of public health officials to share information about the pandemic, promoting unproven treatments, and politicizing the use of masks.
Trump has faced backlash in recent days after he said on Saturday that 99% of coronavirus cases were totally harmless.
In a television interview on Sunday, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn declined to address the president’s comments.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday defended the comments. “The president was making a factual point that most people will recover from coronavirus who get it, that there are a very small fraction of people who fall victim to coronavirus in a fatal way,” she said.
