We're still combing through all of Sen. Kamala Harris's (D-CA) outrageous assessments during Wednesday night's vice presidential debate. But one of her earliest accusations stood out. In one of her first answers about the coronavirus pandemic, Harris accused the Trump administration of a complete failure to respond to the outbreak, and suggested that President Trump dismissed the virus by calling it a "hoax."
The senator is referring to Trump's South Carolina rally in February when he accused Democrats of politicizing the coronavirus - just like they tried with Russiagate, then Ukrainegate - with the intent of booting him from office.
"They have no clue," Trump said of the Democrats. "They don’t have any clue. 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 his critics concluded that the president was calling the coronavirus itself a "hoax." So, here we are again.
Sen. Kamala Harris peddles the lie that President @realDonaldTrump referred to the coronavirus as a hoax.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 8, 2020
Here's AP's fact check: https://t.co/Bqaw1y4v6A pic.twitter.com/BD4E8rbCfi
The fact-checking crew of The New York Times determined that Harris's remark was "misleading."
"Ms. Harris is taking Mr. Trump’s comments out of context," The Times wrote. "He was speaking about the Democrats’ criticism of his administration’s response to the pandemic and comparing it to the 'impeachment hoax,' not the virus itself."
Kamala Harris made a misleading claim about the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 8, 2020
Find all of our fact checks for the #VPDebate here. https://t.co/6AlLGIJGig pic.twitter.com/E9EHRWafrt
We would argue this is more than just "misleading." The president did not call COVID-19 a hoax. In fact, time and again, he's referred to the coronavirus as the "invisible enemy" that has upended American lives and taken over 210,000. He and his coronavirus task force have been hard at work replenishing the national stockpile of ventilators, providing PPE to health care workers, implementing lifesaving travel bans, and working for months on a vaccine. That's not the work of a White House that is not taking this pandemic seriously.
But again, as I mentioned earlier, this was only one of Harris's fibs.
Running track of Kamala's lies:
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 8, 2020
- Claimed Trump called covid-19 a hoax
- Claims she and Biden won't ban fracking
- Repeated the Russian bounties lie
- Charlottesville fine people on both sides hoax