Trump is trying to rewrite history by claiming that he was being sarcastic when he suggested injecting people with bleach to kill coronavirus.
Trump said while signing another stimulus bill in the White House, “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen….I was asking a sarcastic, and a very sarcastic question, to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it, and it does kill it on the hands, and it makes things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to reporters.”
Video:
"I was asking a sarcastic, & a very sarcastic question, to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it." — Trump tries to rewrite history, says he was speaking "sarcastically" when he mused about disinfectant injections being cure for Covid. pic.twitter.com/bWRU8EV6FZ
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 24, 2020
Trump just to pull the right-wing defense that he was only kidding.
The problem for Trump is that there is video and a transcript from yesterday.
Here is the exchange from the official White House transcript of the briefing, and as you can see, Trump was not talking to reporters:
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. So I asked Bill a question that probably some of you are thinking of, if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too. It sounds interesting.
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: We’ll get to the right folks who could.
THE PRESIDENT: Right. And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me.
So we’ll see. But the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute, that’s — that’s pretty powerful.
Video from Thursday’s briefing:
Trump asks if he can inject people with disinfectant to get rid of coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/UQEiNwPYrh
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 23, 2020
Trump’s revisionist history is not what happened. There is a reason why the maker of Lysol felt the need to publicly warn people not to drink their product.
Trump said it, and he now he is pretending like he didn’t, as he shows a total incapacity for leadership while the nation is fighting a pandemic.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
