During an interview on Fox And Friends on Wednesday, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner praised President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as a “great success story,” less than a day after the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 1 million and more than 60,000 coronavirus-related deaths.
Kushner painted a rosy picture for Fox News audience, saying that “the federal government rose to the challenge and this is a great success story and I think that that’s really what needs to be told.”
When asked about coronavirus testing levels in the US, Kushner said the question shouldn’t be why did it take so long, but, “How did we do this so quickly?” He also predicted that things will be “rocking” by July.
Almost 60K people dead in a month @foxandfriends, that’s a very morbid measure of success even for Kushner! #watchwhattheydonotwhattheysaypic.twitter.com/vB2r7NgXI9
— Isabel G (@maisgar57) April 29, 2020
President Trump similarly attempted to reframe the narrative around the growing number of coronavirus cases and deaths, which have now surpassed the total of US troop fatalities during the Vietnam War.
“Other countries don’t have the ability to do what we’re doing on coronavirus testing,” Trump said Wednesday, adding that while the 1 million coronavirus cases sounds bad, it is “an indication that our testing is so superior.”
“So, we reached a million cases, that’s a tremendous amount, and the reason is because of testing, because other countries don’t test. If you don’t test you’re not going to find cases,” Trump said.
Trump also seemed to take note of Kushner’s frustration over the administration not getting credit for its response, calling Kushner “a genius.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the US has reported more than 1 million coronavirus cases and more than 60,000 coronavirus-related deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
While politicians from both parties and public health experts have raised alarms throughout the pandemic of major impediments to conducting coronavirus tests, Trump and his senior advisers continue to complain that the administration is not getting enough credit for their efforts in combating the pandemic.
