Friday, May 1, 2020

Trump 16,000 Lies: Lays Blame on China for Pandemic Not His Own Shortcomings

Will he brag about this world record


Another big Trump BS story: “He says he has evidence coronavirus came from a Chinese lab, but he can't reveal it” (April 30, 2020)

Trump says he has seen evidence to prove that the coronavirus pandemic had spread from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, but he declined to detail what that evidence was when asked by a reporter, he responded:I’m not allowed to tell you that.”

He spoke at a White House news conference at which he repeatedly accused China’s government over of being negligent in its response to the virus, while leaving open the possibility it was intentionally spread. 

Speaking to reporters intended to highlight the administration’s efforts to protect nursing-home residents from COVID-19, Trump was asked about a statement released Thursday by the office of the DNI who stated:“… that the U.S. believed the coronavirus was not manmade or genetically modified.

Snippets and highlights follow. The reporter asked the president if he had personally seen evidence that the virus originated in a laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Trump seemed unfamiliar with the finding and pressed the reporter for the name of the official behind the statement, which was attributed only to “The Office of DNI” (the #1 position that oversees all 17 agencies in the IC (Intelligence Community).

Trump said:Yes, I have.” 

Pressed for specific evidence that gave him confidence that the virus had come from a lab, Trump said: “I can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that.” Major News Agencies (Yahoo news) first reported that U.S. intelligence officials were investigating whether the virus might have escaped from a research facility in Wuhan rather than spreading from live animal wet” markets which was dominant at the outset of the pandemic. However, that is not inconsistent with this latest IC finding that it was not man-made or genetically modified.”

Note: Virology laboratories worldwide routinely work on naturally-occurring pathogens.

More from that news conference from Trump:

He leveled a series of attacks against China, including the suggestion that its government could have contained the coronavirus, but chose not to, saying:This is something that could have been contained at the original location, and I think it could have been contained relatively easily. China’s a very sophisticated country and they could have contained it. They were either unable to, or they chose not to and the world has suffered greatly.”

Asked if he believed China was withholding information on the coronavirus so as to hurt his chances of being reelected, Trump said he didn’t want to “cast any dispersions [sic],” but quickly said: China would like to see Sleepy Joe Biden elected,” then adding: “China doesn’t want to see me elected and the reason is we’re getting billions and billions of dollars many billions of dollars a month from China. China never gave our country anything. China never gave us nothing.”

Pressed on whether he believed China had intentionally let the virus spread, Trump said it was a possibility, he said:Well they could have done it and I’m just saying, well, one of two things happened: they either didn’t do it, you know they couldn’t do it from a competence standpoint, or they let it spread. And, you know, I would say probably it got out of control, but you know there’s another case that how come they stopped all the planes, all of the traffic from going into China, but they didn’t stop the planes and the traffic from coming into the United States and from coming into all of Europe? I mean look at Italy, look what happened to Italy.”

On whether he planned to try to hold China accountable for the spread of the coronavirus, Trump stopped short, but then he said: I want to find out what happened.” But at the same time Trump pointed blame at Beijing’s government adding: “They could have stopped it. They are a very brilliant nation, scientifically and otherwise. It got loose, let’s say, and they could have capped it. They could have stopped it, but they didn’t.”

Asked what had changed in his assessment of China’s culpability, after he praised President Xi’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak early on, Trump linked the pandemic with the trade deal the U.S. signed with China in January.

Trump said:What’s changed is the following: We did a trade deal and everybody was very happy. So recently we signed a trade deal with China a number of months ago. China’s buying billions of dollars worth of our products, our farm products, other products, manufacturing products and it’s been a great deal. But then we noticed a virus and it’s not acceptable what happened. It came out of China and it’s not acceptable what happened,” and he concluded that the U.S. would soon “Have the answer to how the virus originated and that will determine a lot how I feel about China.”

— Finis

My 2 cents: What a load of horse sh*t – now as the saying goes, how does Trump and his team get the sh*t back in the horse?

Not much to add to this man’s utter lack of knowledge about much of anything except to lay the BS on thick – that is his skill – the skill an experienced con artist that he is. 

Congrats and shame on the GOP for giving him a pass on getting rid of him in February during the Senate impeachment trial. Now they are reaping what he sows.

Thanks for stopping by.

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