Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor Jennifer Rubin said Sunday that more Republicans than Democrats will die of the coronavirus because conservative outlets have downplayed the threat.
During a segment on MSNBC’s AM Joy, Rubin said media outlets with more favorable coverage of President Trump, such as Fox News, downplayed the thread of the virus and thus put their viewers at risk, while Democrats have been quicker to take precautionary measures.
“There is a particular cruelty irony that it is their core viewers, the Republican older viewers, who are the most at risk,” she said.
“So, I hate to put it this way, but there will be less Democrat deaths because there will be less mass gatherings, there will be less opportunities for people to congregate and share this horrible disease. So it is really a very short-sighted strategy,” she said.
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Rubin added: “I think the problem is going to be what happens unfortunately if we start to follow that Italian model where we have mass casualties, and our lives are not disrupted for a week or two, but we’re talking months. And that is going to be some serious stuff. And I don’t know if their brainwashing is so strong as to carry on and make excuses for Trump during that. But this is going to be some serious stuff.”
Trump declared a national emergency last week, freeing up funds and resources to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
“To unleash the full power of the federal government, I’m officially declaring a national emergency — two very big words,” Trump said during a news conference in the White House Rose Garden.
“This is how they do it at Fox News. Suddenly, he’s been the most pro-active president … The toughest on it,” Rubin said.
As of Monday morning, there were more than 3,770 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States and 69 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
