House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is grading President Donald Trump’s performance on producing and distributing testing amid the coronavirus crisis.
Fox News’ Chris Wallace opened his exchange with Pelosi by pointing to Trump’s new guidelines he unveiled in recent days.
He asked Pelosi if she believed Dr. Anthony Fauci’s opinion this plan could work.
“Yeah well he said if this were to be done properly, well it hasn’t been done,” Pelosi said.
Watch her comments below:
The President has announced plans to reopen the country. @SpeakerPelosi says there hasn’t been enough testing: “We’re way late on it. And that is the failure. President gets an “F” a failure on the testing.” #FNS pic.twitter.com/bBJaSpDJAx
— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) April 19, 2020
Pelosi released an additional statement criticizing Trump’s plan.
“The White House’s vague and inconsistent document does nothing to make up for the president’s failure to listen to the scientists and produce and distribute national rapid testing,” the statement reads.
She went on to explain testing is a part of a bigger plan to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus including contact tracing, treatment, and quarantine.
Pelosi noted the delay in testing as a point of failure in Trump’s new guidelines.
“We’re way late on it and that is the failure,” Pelosi said. “The president gets an F, a failure, on the testing.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) joined Pelosi in criticizing Trump’s plan, as IJR previously reported.
Schumer said he believes testing is the key component missing from the plan.
“The testing regime is scattershot and totally inadequate for the job that’s needed to get the country back to work,” Schumer said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) called for more federal funding to ramp up testing in recent days, as IJR previously reported.
He also issued an executive order calling on both public and private labs to work with State Department of Health to focus on diagnostic testing.
Coronavirus cases continue to rise across the United States. As of Sunday afternoon, there are reportedly more than 737,000 coronavirus cases and over 39,000 deaths.