Pelosi & Schumer Claim Trump Called The Coronavirus A ‘Hoax’, Despite It Being Debunked

[Image source: FOX News, ABC, & CNN video screenshots. Swamp Drain compilation].

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) both claimed President Trump called the coronavirus a “hoax” during two separate interviews, which aired on Sunday.

In February, the president held a campaign rally in South Carolina and made comments during a speech in which he accused Democrats of “politicizing” the coronavirus outbreak. Despite, Pelosi and Schumer’s claim, President Trump did not call the coronavirus itself a hoax.

On March 2, 2020, Snopes fact-checked the “hoax” claim. Here are President Trump’s exact words on the topic at the South Carolina rally:

“Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. You know that, right? Coronavirus. They’re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs. You say, ‘How’s President Trump doing?’ They go, ‘Oh, not good, not good.’ They have no clue. They don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa, they can’t even count. 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. That was on a perfect conversation.

They tried anything, they tried it over and over, they’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning, they lost, it’s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax. But you know, we did something that’s been pretty amazing. We’re 15 people [cases of coronavirus infection] in this massive country. And because of the fact that we went early, we went early, we could have had a lot more than that,” the president said. Continued Below

In context, Trump did not say in the passage above that the virus itself was a hoax. He instead said that Democrats’ criticism of his administration’s response to it was a hoax, Snopes reported.

Sunday during an interview on ABC’s “This Week”, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told host George Stephanopoulos, “I’m afraid [President Trump] is gonna act on the basis he has before. It’s a hoax, it’s magically going to disappear, and that’s why I sent out the letter that I did after Easter.”

“Because Easter gave me a time for reflection and prayerfulness about– okay, we don’t want to keep harping on what he did wrong, [be]cause he failed. He failed in the testing and rest. It’s a hoax and it’s going to magically disappear,” she claimed in part. Continued Below

Pelosi was referring to a press release she released after Easter, in which she attacked the president, claiming he is a “weak person, a poor leader, takes no responsibility,” adding “A weak person blames others.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also peddled the false claim Sunday during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper.

“I think it’s very hard when you don’t have the federal cooperation– when you have the president very early on saying it’s a hoax, or it will go away, or don’t worry about it to get things done,” Schumer said in part, pertaining to the coronavirus.

Various news media outlets and personalities reported that the president called the coronavirus a hoax. As an example, Politico had run a story in February headlined “Trump rallies his base to treat coronavirus as a ‘hoax.'” Politico has not updated their article, despite being checked by independent fact-checkers.

February Facebook screenshot.

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Nancy Pelosi’s remarks:

Chuck Schumer’s remarks:

(Related: Gaetz Blasts Dems For Allowing Recess During Crisis: Pelosi Has Receded To Her Mansion, While Trump Remains In Washington)