Donald Trump knows he has badly mishandled the Coronavirus epidemic in this country. To cover up for it, and to try and make himself look better, he is floating two big lies.
The first one is that he acted swiftly by closing the border to people from China, and then from other countries. The sad fact is that his action did little to nothing to stem the tide of the epidemic. The virus was already in this country when he did it -- and it has mainly been spread from one American to another (not from people coming from other countries).
But the biggest lie (and one that flies in the face of the one above) is that the virus "snuck up" on him and that he couldn't have foreseen it.
The truth is that before he even took office, the Obama administration warned him that a pandemic could happen. He ignored the warning, and even eliminated the government office President Obama had created to handle a pandemic.
Also true is that scientists and medical officials have been warning of a possible pandemic for decades now. The fact that one has now happened shouldn't be a surprise to him (or anyone else).
Add to that the fact that intelligence officials, and members of his on administration, informed Trump of the China epidemic as far back as late December. And by the end of January, Trump was warned that it would come to this country (and in fact, was already here).
What did he do? NOTHING -- other than to play golf repeatedly.
He knew! And the claim not that he didn't (couldn't) have known is a huge lie. It is such an egregious lie that PolitiFact has rated it "pants of fire".
Trump has told thousands of lies since entering office, but this one is huge -- because it will cost American lives.
