Dennis Quaid says Trump is doing a 'good job' tackling coronavirus crisis, praises his daily televised briefings
Dennis Quaid sparked outrage on Twitter on April 9 after insisting that President Donald Trump was doing a "good job" tackling the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The 'Parent Trap' star is currently hunkered down with fiance Laura Savoie at their Hollywood Hills home after their Hawaii wedding previously scheduled on April 4 was postponed owing to the lockdown.
"Well, to tell you the truth, I think the president is handling it in a good way," Quaid told The Daily Beast. "We see him on television every day, he's involved, and the travel ban early on was a great idea — which he did in spite of protest about that."
Quaid's comments come amid reports that a majority of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the pandemic.
"I think Trump, no matter what anybody thinks of him, is doing a good job at trying to get these states - and all of the American people - what they need, and also trying to hold our economy together and be prepared for when this is all over," the actor continued. "I don't want to get into petty arguments about it."
"There's a lot of talk about how South Korea handled the crisis, and the thing about South Korea is they're still in a state of war with North Korea and are always on the alert for all kinds of threats — nuclear threats, biological threats — so I would imagine that had something to do with how quickly they were able to respond to it," he added.
According to Quaid, he used to be an independent and did not identify with either of the parties, but he feels Trump's leadership is just what America needs right now.
He also lauded the president's China travel ban in February. "Trump did do the travel ban to China, and then to Europe very quickly afterward, and he was castigated by a lot of members of Congress, who were just getting out of the impeachment, that it was racist what he was doing. It's a good thing we had that travel ban at the time," 'The Intruder' star said.
"You know, the world has never experienced this, and I don't think it's a time to be political. I think it's just time to get behind our government and have everybody do what they can. If you want to point blame after, that's another story, but right now I think we all just really need to come together on this," he continued.
Quaid said he "appreciated" the president's daily coronavirus briefings. "I do appreciate that Trump is giving the briefings and on television every day giving out the information, and I think they have great people handling it," he added.
The 'Innerspace' star sparked a backlash on Twitter after his words went public, with one user comparing him to his troubled brother, Randy.
"Dennis Quaid has gone Randy Quaid. Never go Randy Quaid," one wrote. "I'm so mad at Dennis Quaid for thinking Trump is doing a good job that I went to my garage and threw out his latest movie on Betamax," another added.
When asked about 'National Lampoon' star Randy, Quaid said he couldn't talk about him. The Oscar-nominated actor has mostly been on the news for his legal issues and conspiracy theories over the past decade.