DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement after the United States surpassed 100,000 deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic:

“It is a dark day in America. 100,000 Americans have lost their lives. 100,000. It didn’t have to be this way. Instead of addressing this crisis, Trump spent his weekend golfing. And just last week, he said the fact that the U.S. has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world is a ‘badge of honor.’ But there is no honor in today’s numbers. They are a badge of shame that Trump will wear for the rest of his dwindling days in the Oval Office.

“Make no mistake: This was not inevitable. This disaster is the result of Donald Trump’s flagrant incompetence. In fact, a recent study showed that if social distancing protocols had been implemented a week earlier, 36,000 lives would have been saved. Now imagine the lives we could have saved if Trump had taken action when he first found out about this virus in January. Imagine the lives we could have saved if we had a president who had taken immediate and decisive action, who had listened to the experts instead of denying science, who had put the well-being of Americans above his own political agenda. Imagine if Joe Biden had been president. Thousands of Americans would still be alive today, and millions more would still have jobs.

“We must honor the memory of the lives we’ve lost by bringing an end to this pandemic. But that will only happen through bold and courageous leadership. And that’s exactly what Joe Biden will deliver.”