Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) is raising questions about the accuracy of President Donald Trump’s timeline for a coronavirus vaccine.
During Thursday’s MSNBC interview, O’Rourke joined host Ali Velshi where he was asked about the president’s claim that a vaccine could be made available before the November 3 election. Velshi noted the years-long timeline normally required for effective vaccines to be created.
He asked O’Rourke why he thinks the president touts “misinformation” while bluntly describing the president’s claims as “straight-up lying” and “damaging.”
O’Rourke responded, “I sometimes wonder how you and other journalists can do your job with a president who operates with this level of audacity — lying all the time about the most important things in our lives like the life or death of our family members in a country that now has more than 160,000 of our fellow Americans dead.”
See O’Rourke’s remarks below:
While O’Rourke is hoping for the best outcome for the American people, he criticized the Trump administration as he expressed skepticism of the president’s ability to tell the truth.
“Let’s hope this administration is as successful as it can possibly be in helping to develop a vaccine,” O’Rourke said. “Lives literally depend on it but let’s not hold out hope that the president is telling the truth because this would be the first time in his administration that he has told the truth about something that is important to this country.”
The former Democratic lawmaker’s remarks come just days after the president faced backlash for spreading “misinformation” as he suggested children are “almost immune” to the coronavirus.
During an interview on Fox News, the president made the remarks as schools across the country reopen.
Less than one week into the new school year, a Missouri town saw more than a hundred students and faculty members already being placed under quarantine following exposure to the virus. Faculty members in various school districts in multiple states have also tested positive for coronavirus.
On Thursday, the United States surpassed the 5 million mark in confirmed coronavirus cases.