Mr. Trump’s most glaring fundamental failure (to keep Americans safe) is the target of a new ad that starts airing in some battleground states today.
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BY REBECCA KLAR
President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is the target of a new ad set to launch in the battleground states of Nevada and North Carolina that accuses the president of lying about the virus based on recordings released of his interviews earlier this year with Bob Woodward.
Democratic super PAC MeidasTouch’s 60-second ad, exclusively shared with The Hill on Sunday, hits Trump over his conflicting public and private comments about the coronavirus.
“He lied. People died,” the narrator of the ad says.
Over the past several weeks, the coronavirus has killed Americans at six times the average rate in other rich countries. And we’re recording about eight times more infections.
Why it matters: The virus burned through the rich world like wildfire in the spring, but this new data confirms that the U.S. is one of very few wealthy countries that have failed to suppress it since then.
Breaking it down: The World Bank’s list of “high-income economies” includes 83 countries and territories, ranging from Austria to Bermuda to Chile. Their populations add up to 907 million — 2.7 times America’s.
- As of July 1, they’d collectively recorded virtually the same number of cases as the U.S., and 1.6 times as many deaths.
- Since then, however, 75% of all new cases and 69% of all deaths recorded anywhere in the rich world came in the U.S., which accounts for 27% of the group's population.
- The U.S. is conducting more testing than many other countries. But that's only a small part of the story.
Meanwhile Mr. Trump is gratified to see another super spreader gathering of supporters in Florida.