Jen Psaki Says There’s ‘No Question’ Trump’s ‘Damaging Rhetoric’ About China and Covid ‘Elevated Threats Against Asian-Americans’
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki drew a bright line connecting the xenophobic rhetoric from former President Donald Trump about China and the Covid-19 virus to the steep rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in the past year.
Psaki’s comments came during her daily press briefing, one day after gruesome, triple mass shootings in the Atlanta area killed six Asian-American women as well as a white man and white woman. While local police have not publicly linked the attacks to racism targeting Asians, the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo interviewed a witness who claimed the suspect, who is now in custody, said “I’m going to kill all Asians” during one of the shooting incidents.
According to an analysis by Cal State-San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, anti-Asian hate crimes spiked 150% from 2019 to 2020. Other, more recent shocking assaults of Asian-Americans have ignited public outrage and were even called out by President Joe Biden during his White House address last week.
“Why does the president think attacks on Asian-Americans are increasing in this country?” ABC News’ Karen Travers asked. “Why does he think that’s happening?”
Psaki began by reiterating that Biden was not ascribing a motive to the alleged Atlanta shooter, since law enforcement has yet to officially suggest the killings were hate crimes or spurred by bias. But she then pivoted to addressing the broader political climate over the past year, and the not-so-subtle anti-Chinese comments repeatedly used by Biden’s predecessor.
“I think there’s no question,” Psaki began, “that some of the damaging rhetoric that we saw during the prior administration, blaming, calling Covid the ‘Wuhan virus’ or other things, led to perceptions of the Asian-American community that are inaccurate, unfair, have raised, has elevated threats against Asian Americans.”
Trump rarely missed an opportunity to blame China for the coronavirus, variously calling Covid the “China virus” or the “Wuhan virus” or even the unmistakable smear “Kung flu.” This constant trafficking in anti-Chinese language, linked in context with a virus that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, has even earned him criticism for some corners of Fox News and was challenged by the press as a “racist” trope almost one year ago exactly.
Last March, senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway went so far as to publicly challenge CBS News’ Weijia Jiang for saying she’d heard a White House official use the “Kung flu” slur, and then condemned the term as “highly offensive.” But three months later, Trump mockingly deployed the smear at his infamously under-attended Tulsa campaign rally.
“We’re seeing that around the country,” Psaki added, referring to the rise in nativist attacks on Asian-Americans. “That’s why even before the horrific events of last night, [Biden] felt it was important to raise this issue, elevate it, during his first prime time address. Why he signed the executive order earlier in his presidency, and he will continue to look for ways to elevate and talk about this issue moving forward.”
The relevant portion begins at the 53:50 mark.
Watch the video above, via YouTube.
