Trump says push for less coronavirus testing was
sarcasm
The US president’s comments add a new twist to the
White House scramble to clarify his earlier messaging.
By JORDAN
MULLER 6/26/20, 5:59 AM CET
U.S.
President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had “sarcastically” claimed that a
decrease in coronavirus testing would lower U.S. infection rates, adding a new
twist to the weeklong scramble by the White House to clarify the president’s
comments on virus testing.
“Sometimes
I jokingly say, or sarcastically say, if we didn’t do tests we would look
great,” Trump said in an interview and Fox News town hall with Sean Hannity.
“But you know what? It’s not the right thing to do.”
The
president’s comments come nearly a week after he claimed at a campaign rally in
Tulsa, Okla., that he’d ordered a slowdown in coronavirus testing. Trump on
Tuesday insisted he was serious in slowing down testing, even after senior
White House officials said the president made the comment in jest.
“I don’t
kid,” Trump said when pressed by reporters on Tuesday. “Let me make it clear.”
The
president’s comments at the Tulsa rally sparked days of jockeying by officials
and White House aides to defend the president’s statements. Vice President Mike
Pence told governors that the president’s comments on testing were a “passing
observation,” while White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump’s
claim was “made in jest.”
Anthony
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
told a House committee on Tuesday that the Trump administration was ramping up
testing, not slowing it down.
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