President Donald Trump is backpedaling to retract his remarks made about slowing down coronavirus testing.
On Thursday evening, Trump sat down for a town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. The president discussed the debacle stemming from his remarks where he suggested slowing down COVID-19 testing would lower the infection rate.
The president claimed slowing down testing would not be “the right thing to do.”
“Sometimes I jokingly say, or sarcastically say, if we didn’t do tests we would look great,” Trump said. “But you know what? It’s not the right thing to do.”
See Trump’s remarks below starting at the 14:20 mark:
Trump’s remarks on Thursday came days after his remarks during the campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
At the time, the president referred to the coronavirus as the “Kung flu” and “Chinese virus,” before saying, “Testing is a double-edged sword. We’ve tested now 25 million people. It’s probably 20 million people more than anybody else.”
He later added, “Here’s the bad part. When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people. You’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.”
See Trump’s rally remarks:
After the rally, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted that the president had not advised officials to slow testing down, as previously reported on IJR.
However, the following day, Trump made it clear that he was not joking. While speaking with reporters outside of the White House, Trump said, “I don’t kid,” when asked about the remarks.
NEW: Asked whether he was kidding when he claimed at his Tulsa rally he had instructed officials to slow down COVID-19 testing, Pres. Trump says, "I don't kid."
— ABC News (@ABC) June 23, 2020
Yesterday, press sec. Kayleigh McEnany told @bgittleson the comments had been "in jest." https://t.co/yXYp4j9zXj pic.twitter.com/jjd5XVLRye
Despite his latest remarks insisting the remarks were said “jokingly” or “sarcastically,” the administration has taken action that reflects the president’s words.
Reports have confirmed that Trump administration has moved to cut federal funding from 13 testing sites located in five states, some seeing surges in case rates. In fact, multiple Republican senators have even admitted they are not sure why this action is being taken.
As of Friday morning, there are more than 2.5 million positive coronavirus cases in the United States.