President Trump fired back at Democrats questioning his handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
While speaking to supporters at a Friday rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, the president blasted Democrats for “politicizing” the outbreak, calling their criticism of his response “their new hoax.”
“Now, the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” the president said before renewing his attack on the errors that befell the Iowa Democratic Party during the state’s caucuses, which led to delayed results. “They can’t even count the votes in Iowa. No, they can’t. They can’t count their votes.”
“One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax,” he continued. “And this is their new hoax.”
The president’s attack came after a firestorm of comments he made during a Wednesday White House press conference in which he called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “incompetent” for criticizing his knowledge on the virus.
“I think Speaker Pelosi is incompetent,” Trump said, adding that the California Democrat is “trying to create a panic” for a “political advantage” by attacking him.
The president also fired back at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who chided him for requesting too small a budget to handle the outbreak, during the press conference. Senate Democrats rejected the president’s proposed $2.5 billion budget in favor of an $8.5 billion budget, with some Republicans supporting the deal.
Trump put Vice President Mike Pence as the head of the White House coronavirus task force, telling reporters, “He has got a certain talent for this.”
