Late night TV show host Stephen Colbert tried to make people forget that the media had a long history of calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus" and the "Wuhan coronavirus" prior to it being officially named in early February.
Colbert joined the many Democrats and members of the media who claim President Trump was being racist when he has called COVID-19 as the Chinese virus in tweets.
"Now, we’ve all been calling it 'Coronavirus,' or 'COVID-19,' but Trump’s been tooting his racist dogwhistle pretty hard by calling it 'Chinese virus' and he defended it at today’s press conference," Colbert said while at his home.
"Well, China was putting out information, which was false, that our military gave that to them. That is false. Rather than having an argument, I said, 'I have to call it where it came from. It did come from China.' So I think it's a very accurate term. So no, I didn't appreciate the fact that China was saying that our military gave it to them. Our military did not give it to anybody," Trump explained.
"No, it’s not. It’s a very racist term. If you care so much about naming things where they came from, then call it 'bat bite fever,'" Colbert responded.
Of course, Colbert must be forgetting, or is deliberately misleading on the fact the press had long described the disease as "Chinese virus" and the "Wuhan coronavirus."
Liberal media pundits want you to think referring to the coronavirus as the "Wuhan" or "Chinese" virus is racist.
— MRCTV.org (@mrctv) March 12, 2020
Here's just a few of the times the liberal media did just that. pic.twitter.com/ss3kV5smSP
Indeed, the authoritarian Chinese government's propaganda machine is trying to claim the virus originated in the United States and some members of the media, it seems, are willing to play along by baselessly claiming calling the virus where it originated from as being racist.