Trump talked about COVID-19 threat in SOTU speech Nancy Pelosi ripped to shreds

April 1, 2020 | Tom Tillison |

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi established the new marching orders Sunday during her appearance on CNN, attacking President Trump for his handling of the Chinese virus COVID-19.

The San Francisco Democrat said that the national response to the coronavirus was hampered by an alleged early denial by the president, as Pelosi opted to politicize the unprecedented national emergency brought on by the pandemic — a crisis crushing American families and businesses.

“His denial at the beginning was deadly,” Pelosi said, adding the money line, “As the president fiddles, people are dying.”

Of course, there’s no truth to the assertion, even if her media allies do run with the narrative.

On January 31, Trump issued a ban on travel from China, and we are now reminded that the president talked about the coronavirus four days later during his State of the Union address — you know, the one Pelosi stood up before the American people and ripped in half.

“Protecting Americans’ health also means fighting infectious diseases,” Trump said in the Feb. 4 speech. “We’re coordinating with the Chinese government and working closely together on the coronavirus outbreak in China. My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.”

But even before all of this is the little-reported fact that on January 29, Trump formed the White House Coronavirus Task Force — the first confirmed case in the U.S. came on January 21, in Washington state.

Yet, the media seized on Trump saying early on “we have it very well under control,” words offered primarily in January and early February to reassure the country and minimize panic. The being the same media over-hyping the coronavirus, whipping the country into a near panic as grocery shelves across America emptied.

Keep in mind that, based on false assurances from Chinese authorities, the World Health Organization tweeted on Jan. 14: “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China.”

The irony in all of this is that Speaker Pelosi’s obstructionism delayed passage of the coronavirus relief package hurriedly put together to help desperate Americans, all so she could slip in as many liberal goodies as possible — like $25 million for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Of course, we know what Democrats were focused on in January.

For two weeks and six days, between Jan. 16 – Feb. 5, as the coronavirus was taking hold in the U.S., Pelosi and Co. were consumed with their failed impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.

Not only did this partisan campaign to unseat a duly elected president distract the nation, it also distracted President Trump, understandably so.

CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta, certainly no friend of Trump’s, reported as much on January 18.

“Donald Trump has appeared ‘distracted’ by the impeachment trial that begins on Tuesday, according to a source close to the White House who speaks to the President regularly,” Acosta reported.

Of all the many responses to the tweet highlighting Trump’s State of the Union remarks, these two summed things up well: