President Trump launched a firestorm of criticisms against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer while addressing the coronavirus during a White House press conference.
On Wednesday, the president spoke alongside healthcare professionals on the growing coronavirus outbreak. While answering questions from reporters, he was asked to comment on Pelosi’s criticisms of the administration’s handling of the illness.
“What he’s doing is late, too late — anemic,” Pelosi said earlier on Wednesday.
She also said, “I don’t think the president knows what he’s talking about, once again.”
“I think Speaker Pelosi is incompetent. She lost the Congress once. I think she’s going to lose it again. She lifted my poll numbers up 10 points. I never thought that I would see that so quickly and so easily,” Trump hit back.
“Instead of making a statement like that, she should be saying, ‘We have to work together because we have a big problem, potentially,’ and maybe it’s going to be a very little problem. I hope that it’s going to be a very little problem, but we have to work together.”
Trump also fired back at Schumer, who chided the president for requesting, in his view, too small a budget to handle the outbreak. Senate Democrats rejected the president’s proposed $2.5 billion budget on Wednesday in favor of an $8.5 billion budget, with some Republicans supporting the deal.
“Same thing with Cryin’ Chuck Schumer. He goes out, and he says, ‘The president only asked for $2.5 billion. He should have $8.5 billion’. This is the first time I’ve ever been told that we should take more. Usually, it’s we have to take less,” Trump said. “And we should be working together. He shouldn’t be making statements like that because it’s so bad for the country.”
Trump said he’d welcome a larger budget to fight the illness before accusing Pelosi of “trying to create a panic” for a “political advantage” by attacking him.
“They shouldn’t demean the people that are on this stage, who are the finest in the world. They’re not demeaning me. They’re demeaning the greatest healthcare professionals in the world,” he said.
