SC Rep. Clyburn calls Trump’s handling of COVID-19 ‘failure of historic proportions’

Hours after the nation learned Friday that President Trump and the first lady were infected with COVID-19, Rep. Jim Clyburn held a congressional hearing during which he lambasted Trump’s handling of the deadly virus.

After wishing the Trumps a “speedy and complete recovery,” Clyburn recited a litany of what he said were Trump administration coronavirus missteps, beginning with how the United States handled the pandemic compared with the rest of the world.

The hearing, called to examine the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic, had been scheduled before Thursday night’s revelation that the first family had COVID. Appearing before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, which Clyburn chairs, was Health and Human Services Secretary Alexander Azar. The HHS oversees major government scientific and public health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

For years, Clyburn said to begin the hearing, the United States led the world in “countless medical breakthroughs” in polio, AIDS, Ebola and other diseases.

“That is why it has been so heartbreaking that this administration has squandered this legacy by refusing to lead, ignoring our scientists and putting politics over the health of the American people. There can be no doubt that the president’s response to the coronavirus has been a failure of historic proportions,” Clyburn said.

“COVID-19 has claimed more American lives than the battles of World War I, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War combined,“ Clyburn said. (According to the Congressional Research Service and other sources, the number of combat deaths in those wars is nearly 140,000; COVD-19 has killed more than 206,000 Americans.)

Clyburn continued, “More people have died from the virus in the United States than in any other country on earth. We have 4% of the world’s population but 20% of the coronavirus deaths. More than 140 other countries have all had fewer deaths per capita from this virus than we’ve had in the United States.”

Behind Clyburn as he spoke were large photos of four people who died from the coronavirus, including a 5-year-old Michigan girl and a Columbia teacher, Demetria Bannister, a 28-year-old third-grade teacher who died last month after testing positive.

“Last Sunday, Demi’s mother Shirley Bannister also died from the coronavirus,” Clyburn told the live-streamed hearing.

“Shirley was a 57-year-old constituent of mine who served as the chair of the nursing department at Midlands Technical College.”

Clyburn continued, “Even though the president knew early in February that the coronavirus was — I’m quoting him here — ‘deadly stuff,’ in March he said — I’m quoting him again — ‘I wanted to always play it down.’ ” (The quotes come from Bob Woodward’s latest book, Rage, and are on tape and have been played to national television audiences.)

The Trump administration strategy of leaving major efforts of fighting the virus and getting protective gear to the individual states led to “shortages and delays and let the virus spread widely throughout the country,” Clyburn said.

Nearly 50 “documented failures” by the administration included faulty guidance not to test people who didn’t show coronavirus symptoms, Clyburn said. The latest scientific guidance is that people who are asymptomatic — not showing symptoms— can spread the virus.

Replying to Clyburn, Republican ranking member on his committee, Rep. Joseph Scalise, of Lousiana, praised the Trump administration’s efforts, including those of HHS, in fighting the pandemic since the early part of the year.

There has been a successful plan in place to protect Americans, slow the spread of COVID-19 and get protective gear, ventilators and take other steps to protect Americans, Scalise said.

Forceful systematic efforts have been made to protect vulnerable populations, especially those in nursing homes, Scalise said.

In his remarks, Azar said efforts have been underway to develop a vaccine and treatments since January.

In response to a Clyburn question about why, in terms of deaths and cases, the U.S. ranks “close to last” among countries of the world in handling the pandemic, Azar said he regretted that more than 206,000 Americans have died.

But, Azar said, if the Trump administration hadn’t taken the steps it did, the U.S. could have lost “as many as 2 million Americans.”

There are various ways of measuring death rates, and if other statistical methods are used, the U.S. actually is doing better than Europe and some other areas of the world, Azar said.

This story was originally published October 2, 2020 at 4:03 PM with the headline "SC Rep. Clyburn calls Trump’s handling of COVID-19 ‘failure of historic proportions’."