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,

On June 19, PFAW closed in observance of [ [link removed] ]Juneteenth to encourage our
staff and members to reflect on structural anti-Black racism and deepen
our commitment to anti-racist action. To not distract from these efforts,
we suspended last week’s “Falsehoods and Failures” update. Here is the
round-up for this week.

Donald Trump continues to [ [link removed] ]ignore the ongoing spread of COVID-19 and is
moving full steam ahead with his reelection campaign. As of June 23, Trump
had downplayed the threat of the coronavirus [ [link removed] ]60 distinct times since
January by claiming that the virus is [ [link removed] ]“dying out,” irrespective of the
growth in cases, hospitalizations, and the [ [link removed] ]death rate in the U.S.

Contrary to the president’s lies, COVID-19 cases [ [link removed] ]increased by 25
percent last week compared to the previous week. On June 25, for the
second day in a row the U.S. had the [ [link removed] ]highest number of new cases in a
single day since April. Health experts warn that the U.S. could likely
reach [ [link removed] ]180,000 deaths by October if federal leaders do not take drastic
steps to curtail the spread soon.

* Despite the increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in [ [link removed] ]Oklahoma and
[ [link removed] ]Arizona, Trump resumed in-person [ [link removed] ]campaign rallies in both
states. Masks and other safety measures at all of these [ [link removed] ]rallies
were optional; in fact, Trump encouraged tightly packed crowds at
these rallies because socially distanced crowds cause the events to
[ [link removed] ]“[lose] a lot of flavor.”

* At the June 20 Tulsa rally, Trump admitted that he ordered a
[ [link removed] ]slowdown in coronavirus testing as a means of down-playing
infection and death rates, and [ [link removed] ]continues to attribute the
still-growing numbers to the increase in testing, rather than the
rapid and premature reopening of these states. On June 23, Dr.
Deborah Birx privately pushed back against Trump’s claims, and
[ [link removed] ]told governors to continue increasing their testing efforts.
Four other top health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci,
also [ [link removed] ]contradicted Trump’s testing claims in their testimonies
to Congress that day.
* In Phoenix on June 23, Trump [ [link removed] ]claimed Democrats were trying to
keep the country shut down to hurt both the economy and his
reelection campaign, and said that the country had reached
[ [link removed] ]“the end of the pandemic.”
* As Trump forges ahead with his campaign rallies, COVID-19 is
spreading within his team. In addition to the six campaign staff
members who tested positive [ [link removed] ]before Trump’s Tulsa rally,
[ [link removed] ]two more staff members tested positive after the event and
many more have been [ [link removed] ]instructed to self-quarantine.

* The Los Angeles Times reported on June 23 that Trump has
[ [link removed] ]considered ending the national state of emergency declaration, a
move that would cease vital funding to control the outbreak.
Additionally, Republican-elected officials and others within the Trump
administration are still [ [link removed] ]actively working to repeal the Affordable
Care Act, which has the potential to strip health insurance coverage
from over [ [link removed] ]23 million people in the midst of a pandemic.
* More than two months after Congress passed the coronavirus relief
bill, the Trump administration has not yet distributed at least
[ [link removed] ]$14 billion allocated for federal coronavirus testing and contract
tracing. The Government Accountability Office also released a
[ [link removed] ]report that found that the Treasury Department wasted valuable
time and effort by sending stimulus checks to more than one million
dead people.
* Trump’s xenophobia and racism continue to influence his rhetoric on
and decision-making about the pandemic, causing further damage to
communities of color that are already [ [link removed] ]disproportionately
suffering. On June 15, Trump said that [ [link removed] ]“China should not have let
[the pandemic] happen.” On June 22, he [ [link removed] ]suspended thousands of
foreign worker visas under the pretense of curtailing COVID-19’s
spread. At [ [link removed] ]both the Tulsa and Phoenix rallies, he [ [link removed] ]used the
racist term “kung flu” to refer to the virus.
* Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell [ [link removed] ]testified in front of
Congress that there will be no full economic recovery until the
pandemic has been fully neutralized. [ [link removed] ]In the meantime, its economic
impact continues to hurt millions of Americans. Last week was the
[ [link removed] ]14th straight week that unemployment claims surpassed the one
million mark. Up to [ [link removed] ]12 million low-income people who aren’t
required to file income taxes could miss out on receiving their
stimulus payments, and food banks and other vital assistance programs
have only received [ [link removed] ]a small fraction of their allotted assistance.
Lastly, as many as [ [link removed] ]23 million people are at risk of being
[ [link removed] ]evicted if the previous relief measures aren’t renewed before
September 30.

By continuing to ignore and lie about the facts, Trump is ensuring that
more Americans will be harmed by the pandemic.

That’s why it is vital that Congress [ [link removed] ]pass the HEROES Act.

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The [ [link removed] ]Falsehoods and Failures series will appear every Friday on our
blog. [ [link removed] ]You can find the previous 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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