CNN’s John Avlon Blasts Trump’s Coronavirus Handling: Pandemics Don’t Care About Partisan Politics

CNN political analyst John Avlon ripped into President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus — or “caronavirus” — outbreak, and reminded Trump and his allies that “Pandemics don’t care about politics.”

On Thursday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, Avlon offered one of his trusty “Reality Check” segments, opening by noting that “There are now more than 82,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus around the world, 2,800 lives lost, with at least 60 cases in the United States and climbing,” and said that as the outbreak progressed, “Trump was in denial.”

He added that as the outbreak worsened, “Trump still found time to blame the media,” and displayed Trump’s “Caronavirus” tweet.

“Here’s the thing, Mr. President: Pandemics don’t care about politics,” Avlon said, and added “Remember, the Chinese impulse to cover-up may have helped lead to this outbreak, here in the United States, the Trump administration’s war on science has left us vulnerable.”

He detailed cuts Trump has made to public health programs, and reminded viewers that “the Trump administration also shut down the global health security unit of the national security council, disbanding the very office Obama opened to handle pandemics during the Ebola crisis.”

“At the time, Trump railed against Obama,” Avlon said, and played a clip of a Trump vlog in which he ranted “We have a tremendous problem in Europe because President Obama would not stop the flights, so now we’ve got Ebola.”

“But no we didn’t get an ebola outbreak in America, thanks in part to the government’s robust response,” Avlon said, then ripped Trump’s coronavirus press conference, Homeland Security Chief Chad Wolf’s embarrassing performance at a Senate hearing this week, and Trump’s insistence that the virus will just go away when the weather gets warm.

Avlon also took on Rush Limbaugh’s rant that the coronavirus “is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump,” and that “The coronavirus is the common cold folks.”

“It’s not,” Avlon said, and added “I’ve got news for our nation’s latest Medal of Freedom recipient: the coronavirus doesn’t care about partisan politics. This is a time for government to face facts, embrace science, and do its job to protect the American people. And that’s your Reality Check.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.