For whatever reason, the Democrats are harping on the fact that President Donald Trump referred to the Wuhan coronavirus as the "Chinese virus." They claim that it's racist to point out the fact that the virus originated in China.
Former Vice President Joe Biden's Senior Adviser, Symone Sanders, reiterated that point of view during an interview on Wednesday with Fox News' Martha MacCallum. "It's something that's offensive to Chinese Americans," Sanders claimed.
"What President Trump announced today — it’s a tough job but it has to be done – on some of what he said today was good but the reality is he also stood at the podium and called the coronavirus COVID-19, what I would suggest is a racial slur," Sanders explained.
According to the Biden campaign surrogate, what President Trump said is "offensive to many Americans." She said that "instead of namecalling, instead of pointing fingers, talking about poll numbers–"
"The MERS virus is M-E-R-U-S. Do you know why it's called MERS?" MacCallum asked.
"You tell me, Martha. You brought it up," Sanders said.
"It's called the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome because that’s where it originated," MacCallum explained. "This rabbit hole of getting into this whole issue of racism, I think is so counterproductive to what we are trying to do here. I talked to an amazing scholar on China moments ago who said absolutely China, at the leadership level, has tried to obfuscate and be everything but transparent since the very beginning. They lied and lied and lied about this situation. Why is it not okay to recognize where it originated?"
Sanders said this had nothing to do with China being "forthright," something the Fox News host completely disagreed with.
"Yes, it is. That's exactly what it is," MacCallum clapped back.
"Not in terms of what the President of the United States is referring to this virus from the podium. The reality is yes, the Chinese government refused to let American scientists in to research to see what was going on. That's the stark difference from what happened in the Ebola crisis when the United States government demanded to come in to African countries. That is something we should have and continue to push for. My only point is is they have noted it is offensive to them and in times of strife, particularly when we are dealing with pandemic currently affected with people that has had no contact with people overseas —"
"No one is suggesting American Chinese people are responsible. Every thinking human being who looks at this understand that the reference is to the origin of the virus and also the leadership in terms of how that virus was handled in the country of origin," MacCallum said. "I’m going to leave it there."
We can call it the coronavirus, the Wuhan coronavirus, COVID-19, or whatever new term that's going to be developed tomorrow. Who cares what we call it? What matters right now is that our leaders are taking appropriate actions to protect the lives of Americans across the nation. Period. End of story.
Fox News' Martha MacCallum calls out Biden senior advisor Symone Sanders for trying to score political points on the coronavirus: “let’s be serious" pic.twitter.com/N1huVInB2m
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 19, 2020