CNN’s Stelter Rips Trump’s ‘Nonsensical’ Coronavirus Test Claims: He’s ‘Wasting Time’ on Lies and Not Solutions

CNN’s Brian Stelter used his latest Reliable Sources monologue to break down the feedback loop between pro-Trump media and President Donald Trump’s false claim that America’s coronavirus case numbers are getting worse because of increased testing.

As he looked through the president’s new interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, Stelter said “Trump is still in denial about the pandemic’s devastation,” noting that “he defaulted to his favorite coronavirus lie.” Since Trump also used that part of the interview to attack the “fake news” coverage on the crisis, Stelter noted the “lying about the fake news in the midst of a pandemic as the death toll rises and rises.”

What’s so scary about his words is he talks about the virus like it’s no big deal when you catch it… It’s bad enough that the hospitalization rates are rising. It’s bad enough that the morgues are filling up. It’s bad enough that elderly Americans are suffering in awful numbers. But even the folks who get the virus and then start to recover, they still feel terrible weeks and months afterwards. And there’s no acknowledgment of that the president. Instead it’s ‘we’re testing too much.’

From there, Stelter delved into Trump’s history of flip-flopping on tests, his “debunked” claims, and his insistence that if we didn’t test so much, there’d be less cases.

“Countless reporters have pointed out this is nonsensical,” Stelter said. “It’s like saying if you don’t get tested for cancer, you don’t have cancer.”

Eventually, Stelter noted how Rush Limbaugh and Fox & Friends have both advanced misleading statements about coronavirus testing.

“So, the right-wing media feedback loop is clearly in play here. The president’s disregard for public health is also in play here,” said Stelter. ” He goes on and on in these interviews on Fox and elsewhere, talking about too much testing. He says, I know it’s a good thing but it’s bad as well’…He says this over and over again, wasting time that could be spent talking about masks, vaccines and other solutions.”

Watch above, via CNN.