It’s all about him.
With polls showing him way behind Joe Biden in key battleground states, Donald Trump this morning accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of lying about the coronavirus in order to obstruct his reelection.
Trump retweeted a message written by Chuck Woolery, a former TV game show host, who is also a right-wing conservative and Trump backer.
The tweet reads: “The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust.
“I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it.”
The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most ,that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it.
— Chuck Woolery (@chuckwoolery) July 13, 2020
The message did not make clear what lies the CDC is supposed to be responsible for.
Responses to Trump’s retweet were fierce, some people expressing disbelief.
Executive Katie Jacobs Stanton wrote to Wollery: “Hi Chuck, my dad and I used to watch your shows together. My dad was a lifelong Republican. He died of COVID-19 a few months ago and I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with the election. I’m heartsick about it, too.”
Hi Chuck, my dad and I used to watch your shows together. My dad was a lifelong Republican. He died of COVID-19 a few months ago and I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with the election. I’m heartsick about it, too.
— Katie Jacobs Stanton (@KatieS) July 13, 2020
Trump also retweeted one of Woolery’s tweets that said, “There is so much evidence, yes scientific evidence, that schools should open this fall. It’s worldwide and it’s overwhelming. BUT NO.”
Woolery was apparently referring to data from Europe suggesting that children are less likely than adults to transmit the virus to others, which prompted the American Academy of Pediatrics to recommend that schools reopen with proper safety precautions.
But even the AAP walked back its initial recommendation for in-person schooling this fall.
“Science should drive decision-making on safely reopening schools,” the AAP said in a revised statement Friday, adding that public health agencies should make the decision “based on evidence, not politics.”
Trump and those around him have expressed skepticism in the organization and other government experts before.
It was the latest in a series of tweets in recent weeks, in which he alleged that various organizations are working to ensure that he isn’t voted into a second term.
As states pushed to enact mail-in voting in light of the coronavirus in May, Trump tweeted — without evidence — that such mail-in voting leads to fraud and would spell “THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY.”
New polls out this morning show Trump trailing Biden in Florida, Texas and one congressional district in Nebraska.