MSNBC's John Heilemann calls Trump 'a moron' over Covid-19 test comments: 'Testing doesn't make cases, idiot'
During an appearance on MSNBC’s 'Deadline', the network's national affairs analyst John Heilemann, on Friday, May 15, slammed President Donald Trump, calling him an "idiot" and a "moron." Heilemann made the statement after listening to a controversial statement made by the president where he appeared to suggest that if the United States did not do more coronavirus testing, there would be fewer cases of the virus in the country.
Trump, on May 15, had said: "Don’t forget, we have more cases than anybody in the world, but why? Because we do more testing. When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases. They don’t want to write that. It’s commonsense."
Heilemann, after listening to Trump, denounced his reasoning, and called him an "idiot." The analyst on the network said: "The man is an idiot. Can I just say it at the start? Listening to that sound, he’s just an idiot. He’s just a moron. The idea of the president of the United States stands up and says, ‘the problem with testing is that if we test, we have more cases.’ That’s what he said. If we test, we have more cases," Heilemann said.
The national affairs analyst then proceeded to add that testing does not create coronavirus cases, but only reveals them.
"You know what? The testing doesn’t make the cases. The testing reveals the cases," he added. "The number of cases out there is the number of cases out there. The testing helps us know how many there are. He literally believes that the problem with testing is that it somehow gives us more cases, and that’s bad. It’s bad for his politics. So just the sheer idiocy of his comments."
The president's reasoning on the increasing coronavirus cases in the country came shortly after he left healthcare workers appalled on Thursday, May 14. Trump, in a statement, had said that nurses and doctors "running into death just like soldiers run into bullets" is "a beautiful thing to see". Trump made the statement at a medical equipment distribution center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, standing in front of stacked boxes of medical supplies and personal protective equipment.
"They are warriors, aren't they?" Trump said in his speech. "When you see them going into those hospitals and they're putting the stuff that you deliver, but they're wrapping themselves and the doors are opening and they're going through the doors and they're not even ready to go through those doors. They probably shouldn't."
"They're running into death just like soldiers run into bullets, in a true sense," the president continued. "I see that with the doctors and the nurses and so many other people. They go into those hospitals, it's incredible to see. It's a beautiful thing to see. But I really call them 'warriors.' We're all warriors; everyone in our country is a warrior."
Shortly after the president made the controversial comments, medical professionals objected to Trump's glorification of the high-risk jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic, particularly at a time when there has been a mounting criticism over shortage of PPEs.