Although President Donald Trump used Thursday’s debate to push a more optimistic view of the coronavirus pandemic surge in the United States, not everyone is on board with his assessment. Notably, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes that Trump is “delusional” in his perception of the crisis, The Hill reported.
“The president is delusional when he says we’ve turned the corner on this,” she said during a Friday appearance on MSNBC, echoing previous attacks on the president’s state of mind, per The Inquisitr .
“We haven’t. We have miles to go,” she continued.
Conversely, Trump feels much differently about the state of the pandemic.
“It will go away,” he said Thursday on the debate stage.
“And as I say, we’re rounding the turn. We’re rounding the corner. It’s going away.”
The president also used the event to tout his administration’s handling of the pandemic, which critics say is significantly worse than many other regions of the world.
“If you take a look at what we’ve done in terms of goggles and masks and gowns and everything else, and in particular ventilators — we’re now making ventilators all over the world, thousands and thousands a month distributing them all over the world.”
Despite Trump’s optimism about the virus and his administration’s approach, The Hill claims the country is in the midst of a third surge of the virus. As of Friday evening, approximately 223,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus, and the country has a total of 8.5 million cases. Notably, America reported an additional 75,000 new infections on Thursday — a 32 percent jump from two weeks earlier.
Similarly concerning is that another stimulus bill has yet to be passed due to stalled talks between Democrats and Republicans. Nevertheless, Pelosi expressed optimism about her recent progress with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and suggested that a COVID-19 relief bill before Election Day is possible.
“We’re writing the bill, and hopefully we’ll be able to resolve some of the differences,” she said on Friday.
As reported by Reuters , Mnuchin and Trump the same day expressed openness to agreeing to a deal but put the pressure on Pelosi to compromise. According to Trump — who does not support additional federal aid for Democrat-run states and cities — Pelosi doesn’t want to reach a deal ahead of Election Day. Notably, some critics have suggested that the Democrat is worried that passing a deal before this date will provide political benefit to Trump. But according to Pelosi, it’s on Trump to ensure that Senate Republicans are on board with passing relief legislation.
