Trump Says Testing Is ‘Overrated’
June 18, 2020
In a new interview released today, Trump continued to downplay the virus and suggested that he wants to stop testing so the country posts fewer cases, ignoring the fact that it was his failed response that made us have the most confirmed cases and deaths in the world.
Trump said testing is “overrated” because it makes him look bad.
TRUMP: “I personally think testing is overrated, even though I created the greatest testing machine in history. I’ve created the greatest testing machine in history. And I think testing is overrated. … Look, if we didn’t test all the cases that we’re reporting, you wouldn’t know about any of those cases. In many ways, it makes us look bad.”
Trump wants to emulate China on coronavirus testing by not reporting it so that there are fewer cases — that’s not how it works.
TRUMP: “The problem is when you test, you’re finding cases, you’re finding kids that had it and you know, etc, etc…The problem is because we’re showing cases whereas other countries that don’t have testing capacity, they don’t show cases. So they say the United States has more cases than anybody else. That’s because we do more testing. If we use the same testing that I used in China, or in Iran, or in some of these larger countries, it would blow us away. First of all, China doesn’t report it’s testing.… So I do say they contained it.”
Trump said he chose Oklahoma for his rally because they’re in good shape on coronavirus, but new cases are surging and daily new cases hit a record high.
TRUMP: “Well, one of the reasons we chose the location, Oklahoma is they’ve done very well, with respect to the rally—with respect to the…they have a really good arena, but they’ve done very well, with respect to the, I call it the plague. The plague that was sent by China. And I think that, you know, the numbers are very small. They said there’s a spike, the spike is, I wish Mike (Pence) were here because he was showing me the numbers before. It’s like, very few people. And I think they’re in great shape.”