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Donald Trump has greatly endangered our nation by falling to take decisive early action to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections in the U.S. As a result, this disease has become a raging epidemic in our country.

Trump is now attempting to distract attention from his lack of leadership by blaming others and by lying about what he did and didn’t do.

A recent target has been the World Health Organization, which Trump has blamed for “downplaying” the novel coronavirus threat. The truth is that on Jan. 30 the WHO declared the virus a “public health emergency of international concern” and urged all countries to take coordinated action to prevent the spread of this “extraordinary” threat.

In response to the WHO declaration the U.S., along with many other countries, partially restricted travel from China. Trump’s claim that he “closed up” all travel between the U.S. and China is a lie. The truth is that U.S. citizens and permanent residents and their families were allowed to travel to our country from China and that trade with China continued as before.

Trump also repeatedly has said that his decision to limit travel from China was a “bold” move made “against the advice of almost everybody.” That is not true. At the time, the travel restrictions were announced Alex Azar, the head of the Health and Human Services department, stated that the decision stemmed from “the uniform recommendations of the career public officials here at HHS.”

Another false claim is that Joe Biden opposed travel restrictions on China and criticized that action as “xenophobic” and “racist.” The truth is that Biden supported travel restrictions on China, but criticized Trump’s general lack of honesty and his long record of xenophobia and racism.

Trump repeatedly minimized the threat from the coronavirus outbreak and failed to take decisive actions to combat that threat. He has refused to take responsibility for his lack of leadership, instead choosing to blame others for his failures and lie about his inaction.

Donald Trump’s lies cannot cover up the repeated evidence of his dangerous incompetence and dishonesty.

Donald Holmes

Buchanan