Chris Hayes Rips Trump’s ‘Blue State’ Covid Remarks: ‘If You’re In a State That Voted for Hillary Clinton…Your Aunt’s Death, It Doesn’t Actually Count’

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes tore into President Donald Trump Wednesday evening for the president’s comments dismissing coronavirus deaths in the “blue states,” and for his dismissal of CDC Director Robert Redfield‘s Senate testimony concerning the timeline for a vaccine and urging Americans to continue to wear face masks.

The All In With Chris Hayes host played a video clip from Redfield’s comments to the Senate Appropriations Committee, showing Redfield calling face masks “the most important, powerful public health tool we have.”

“I will continue to appeal for all Americans, all individuals in our country, to embrace these face coverings,” said Redfield, adding that a vaccine would most likely not be widely available until mid- to late-2021 and would not have a 100 percent efficacy.

Hayes remarked that Redfield looked like he was “fighting himself there telling the truth,” knowing “it’ll not be popular with his boss” — and predictably Trump contradicted Redfield a few hours later, dismissing his comments as being “confused” or a result of misunderstanding the question.

Redfield ended up responding indirectly to the president on Twitter, posting two tweets saying that he “100% believe[d] in the importance of vaccines” and again encouraging Americans to adopt “mitigation efforts” like wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing.

Hayes slammed Trump for having “downplayed the importance of masks, ridiculing them and showing thinly veiled contempt for those in his presence who have the gall to wear them” — even as his own CDC director was pushing “masks, masks, masks.”

“This is what happens when you do not follow the advice of public health experts,” said Hayes, mentioning a group of pro-Trump anti-maskers who stormed  Target in Florida. “This is at happens when you put politics before science. And this is why this has been just a grinding nightmare.”

But it was the president’s attempt to reframe America’s staggering coronavirus death rates as not so bad “if you take the blue states out” that really drew Hayes’ ire.

Hayes was incredulous that Trump would even attempt to boast about the administration’s pandemic response as America is “fast approaching 200,000 deaths,” and calling out his attempt to characterize the pandemic as a blue state problem.

“If you take out the blue states, well then, we’re at a very low level,” Hayes remarked. “If you don’t count the deaths of Americans, then we’re at fewer American deaths. If you’re in a state that voted for Hillary Clinton, well then, it’s your fault, I guess. Your aunt’s death, it doesn’t actually count, you see? It’s the message from the President of the United States.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.