Hillary Clinton flayed for America First jab at Trump as US leads in coronavirus cases: 'This isn't the time'
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mocked President Donald Trump over the novel coronavirus pandemic courted controversy. On March 27, Clinton shared a New York Times report titled “The US Now Leads the World in Confirmed Coronavirus Cases”. She shared it with a snarky comment: “He did promise ‘America First’,” referring to Trump’s oft-used phrase.
With more than 100,000 cases and 1,700 deaths, the situation in the US is dire right now. In such a situation, this critique of Trump at the expense of the sufferings of the people rubbed conservatives the wrong way.
“Delete your account. This isn’t the time. This can’t be the new normal, where American tragedy is applauded for the sake of political opportunism,” wrote former Navy SEAL and Republican Congressman from Texas Dan Crenshaw. “This sort of vicious celebratory tone about Americans getting sick & dying during a deadly global pandemic is just appalling,” said Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy on Twitter.
Matt Whitlock, the National Republican Senatorial Committee senior advisor, wrote: “Hillary Clinton touting figures that are a result of Chinese disinformation to dunk on America and sick Americans is a pretty good reminder why she lost in 2016.” Right-wing political commentator Ian Miles Cheong wrote, “This is beyond the pale.” American conservative radio host Dan Bongino tweeted, “A disgusting tweet, from the most disgusting person I ever worked with, in the Secret Service.”
American alt-right political activist and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec replied to Clinton’s tweet and said, “Not the first time you've laughed as Americans died,” without offering any explanation. The Independent Journal Review’s Caleb Hull, on the other hand, said, “This is why you aren't president and he is.”
Nick Merrill, a Clinton spokesperson, told Fox News, “The situation we find ourselves in was demonstrably avoidable, and pointing that out with a reference to the President’s empty rhetoric is nothing more than another way of pleading for him to lead.”
This wasn’t Clinton’s only criticism of the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. On March 28, she tweeted, “A month ago, Trump said: ‘It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear’. Yesterday, he said: ‘I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators’. What will it take to get @realdonaldtrump to listen to experts instead of his own hunches?”
Clinton was referring to Trump’s answer during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday about whether New York would actually need the tens of thousands of ventilators the state’s leaders have said it requires. “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals, sometimes they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they're saying, 'Can we order 30,000 ventilators?'” Trump had said.
On March 24, Clinton had also said, “Please do not take medical advice from a man who looked directly at a solar eclipse.” It was an obvious reference to Trump temporarily taking off his protective glasses during an August 2017 eclipse and looking up at the sky.