A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.

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[ [link removed] ]45's Falsehoods and Failures: Weekly Coverage of Trump During COVID-19

PFAW Member,

Amid [ [link removed] ]dropping poll numbers and ongoing protests against police
violence, Donald Trump was relatively quiet about the pandemic this week.
On Twitter, he [ [link removed] ]promoted conspiracy theories about antifa’s involvement
in the protests, [ [link removed] ]ranted about [ [link removed] ]“law and order,” and [ [link removed] ]insulted
presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Colin
Powell, and other [ [link removed] ]perceived enemies.

Trump clearly [ [link removed] ]would like to limit his [ [link removed] ]focus to whichever issues he
deems most politically advantageous on any given day, or to make [ [link removed] ]false
claims that minimize the scope of the pandemic’s damage to our country.
But four months into this ongoing health and economic crisis, COVID-19
still shows no signs of slowing.

* During one particular press conference on June 5, Trump racked up a
series of misleading and outright false statements. First, he
congratulated himself for his purported leadership during the
pandemic. “We made every decision correctly,” Trump [ [link removed] ]said, “and now
the trajectory is great.” But that simply isn’t true: COVID-19 is on
the [ [link removed] ]rise in 21 U.S. states. This week, [ [link removed] ]14 states and Puerto
Rico hit their highest seven-day average of new infections, and the
[ [link removed] ]U.S. passed a total of two million cases nationwide.
* Trump also denied the pandemic’s devastating impact on our economy.
During that same press conference, Trump referenced the [ [link removed] ]jobs
report that touted growth of 2.5 million jobs, and claimed, “We’re
bringing our jobs back.” However, the following day, news broke that
due to a [ [link removed] ]misclassification error the overall unemployment
percentage in May was three percent higher than was previously
reported: At least [ [link removed] ]21 million Americans were unemployed last
month. Last week alone, [ [link removed] ]more than 1.5 million Americans filed for
unemployment.
* In order to evade blame for the still increasing number of
[ [link removed] ]confirmed cases nationwide, Trump again lied during the press
conference. He [ [link removed] ]claimed that the rising number is simply the result
of an increase in testing, rather than a consequence of his own
premature push to reopen the economy. Public health experts disagree
with him. Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the Columbia University
National Center for Disaster Preparedness, stated that the [ [link removed] ]“surge
numbers are real,” while Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist and global
health expert, connected specific states’ reopening measures to the
corresponding rise in COVID-19 infection rates. “The data that I've
seen from Verizon and even Apple and Google suggest that people are
moving a lot in states like California and Arizona and North Carolina,
and those happen to be three of the six states where you're seeing the
biggest spike of cases,” Gupta said.
* During the same press conference, Trump also said that there are 2
million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine [ [link removed] ]“ready to go,” despite the
fact that none of the vaccines currently [ [link removed] ]being developed or tested
have been proven effective. Neither the White House nor the Department
of Health and Human Services provided reporters with any additional
information or clarity on Trump’s statement. Meanwhile, the Trump
administration’s supply of the sole drug that seems to actually help
coronavirus patients will [ [link removed] ]run out by the end of June.
* Trump continues to [ [link removed] ]refuse to wear a mask or other protective
equipment during his visits to companies that make products needed to
detect and contain COVID-19. Shortly after his June 5 visit to a Maine
factory that produces testing swabs, a spokesperson from the facility
confirmed that the swabs produced during his tour would need to be
scrapped. She did not provide an explicit reason for throwing away the
products, but the disruption in production comes amid a statewide
shortage of swabs and other testing supplies and highlights Trump’s
[ [link removed] ]persistent disregard for [ [link removed] ]workers’ health or safety.
* News of the Trump administration’s failure to assist everyday
Americans during the pandemic continues to come to light:

* On June 8, ProPublica broke down the differences in the CARES
Act’s financial support by socioeconomic status, reporting that
the CARES Act provided millionaires and billionaires with
[ [link removed] ]billions in tax breaks, compared to the “small change” most
Americans received from the one-time stimulus checks (while as
many as [ [link removed] ]35 million people are still waiting for those
checks).
* Despite Trump’s promise that everyone would be able to get tested
for COVID-19 for [ [link removed] ]free, there are reports cropping up across
the country of patients still being charged [ [link removed] ]thousands of
dollars in unexpected bills for their coronavirus tests.
* The bidding process for contracts to provide the federal
government with much-needed COVID-19 supplies has come under
scrutiny, with [ [link removed] ]NPR reporting that the government has spent
billions on these contracts without fully vetting many companies
that were chosen.

* On June 8, [ [link removed] ]Trump announced his plans to restart his signature MAGA
campaign rallies by the end of this month, claiming that there is a
[ [link removed] ]“BIG DEMAND” for him to return to the campaign trail. The first
cities on his rally list include locations in Ohio, Florida, Arizona,
Texas, and North Carolina, all of which are currently experiencing
dangerous new [ [link removed] ]spikes in confirmed cases. Registration for these
rallies includes a [ [link removed] ]disclaimer that attendees cannot sue Trump if
they contract COVID-19 while in attendance. Resuming in-person
campaign rallies while the virus rages on will likely prolong the
duration of this public health crisis, but as we have witnessed during
and even before the pandemic, Trump prioritizes his own self-interest
over the safety and well-being of the American people. In addition to
the rallies, his [ [link removed] ]upcoming schedule will include in-person campaign
fundraisers and travel to his luxury resort in New Jersey.

Despite Trump’s attempts to divert and distract, this fact remains: in the
recent words of Dr. Anthony Fauci, coronavirus [ [link removed] ]“isn’t over yet.”

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The [ [link removed] ]Falsehoods and Failures series will appear every Friday on our
blog. [ [link removed] ]You can find last week's post here. For ongoing coverage of
Trump and the Right Wing's response to the coronavirus, check out PFAW's
[ [link removed] ]Right Wing Watch.

Thanks as always for your ongoing support – stay safe and healthy!

– Sarah, PFAW

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