No, Trump did not call the coronavirus a hoax

President Donald Trump spoke about coronavirus during a rally in Charleston, South Carolina yesterday. The President put particular emphasis on how the Democratic Party are attempting to politicize the issue.

This comes after a 1,200 point drop of the stock market, the largest single-day drop in history.

“Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. We did one of the great jobs, you say ‘How’s President Trump doing?’ They go, ‘Oh, not good.’ They have no clue. They don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa.”

Trump continued: “One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia. That didnt work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything. They tried it over and over. They’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning. They lost, it’s all turning. Think of it, and this is their new hoax.’”

“We did something that’s been pretty amazing. We have 15 people in this massive country and because of the fact that we won early, we could’ve had a lot more than that. We’re doing great. Our country is doing great. We are so unified.”

It’s clear from the context that Trump was highlighting the Democratic Party’s efforts to smear Trump for mishandling the virus.

That didn’t stop members of the establishment media and Democratic lawmakers from mischaracterizing his remarks. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank tweeted: “Remember this moment: Trump in South Carolina just called the coronavirus a hoax.”

NBC ran with the story “Trump calls coronavirus Democrats’ ‘new hoax.'”

Infamous never-Trumper Bill Kristol tweeted “President Trump has called concerns about the spread of coronavirus a hoax. Do you agree, @VP? And you, @SecAzar?”

Democratic member of congress Ted Lieu tweeted “Dear @realDonaldTrump: I hope you apologize for using the term “new hoax” in connection with the #coronavirus outbreak. Stop lying to the American people. This is not about you. This is a global public health crisis.”

The truth, as every objective observer knows, is that Trump clearly expressed that the idea the media is propagating about him mishandling the coronavirus outbreak was a “new hoax.”