Schumer Floor Remarks On President Trump’s Most Recent Lie That “Nothing More Could Have Been Done” To Combat The Coronavirus And Calling On Republicans To Drop The Cynical Games And Work With Democrats On A Real Response To The Ongoing Public Health And Economic Crisis

Washington, D.C.— Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor following another lie from President Trump on his response to coronavirus and called on Republicans to work with Democrats to help the American people still struggling through the coronavirus economic and public health crisis. Below are his remarks which can also be viewed here:

After the Senate Republicans spent four months dithering, delaying, last week Leader McConnell pushed a partisan, emaciated COVID bill. It was so paltry and laden with poison pills, it was clearly designed to fail. And fail it did.

It is time for the Senate Republicans to wake up to the gravity of the crisis in our country and work with Democrats on a comprehensive bill that delivers real help to Americans. Speaker Pelosi and I have already come down $1 trillion from our initial request. Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans must drop the cynical, political games, and instead work with Democrats to find common ground and reach a compromise.

If Republican leadership lets the 20 members of their caucus who barely want to provide any more relief and allows them to dictate their party’s agenda, it will block the path to a compromise, and Republicans will have to answer to the American people.

Now, our country still does not have a strong grasp on COVID-19. America continues to lead the world in the number of confirmed cases by far, over six and half million. Nearly 200,000 Americans have died.

And yet, unthinkably, it was reported that in one of his interviews with Bob Woodward, President Trump said “nothing more could have been done” to combat the coronavirus. “Nothing more could have been done.” That’s what President Trump said.

Of the many lies the President has told about COVID-19, this is one of the most monumental and one of the most galling.

There were so many vital things the president could have done to fight COVID-19 and protect our country.

In the early days of the virus, hospitals and medical centers and essential workers were short on PPE and ventilators and swabs and masks and gloves. President Trump never mobilized the resources of the federal government, never fully invoked the Defense Production Act, never set up a national clearinghouse to get resources where they needed to go.

It’s been seven months and President Trump still doesn’t have a national testing strategy. There has never been a national plan for contact tracing. The president took months before he even encouraged Americans to wear a mask.

This is an entire universe of actions that President Trump could have taken to help slow the spread of the virus and save American lives and American jobs. But he didn’t. He never took strong action, never took responsibility. It is what it is.

In many cases, it would have been better, actually, if the President did nothing instead of what he did. It would have been better if the President never downplayed the virus, never called it a hoax, never pushed quack medicines, never speculated by injecting bleach, and never held rallies. 

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