As Trump faces heat on coronavirus response, Republicans try to elevate China's role
As the deadly pathogen has raced through parts of the United States and the Trump administration has struggled to mount a coordinated response, the matter of China’s management of the disease has begun moving to the center of the domestic political debate over who is to blame for its rapid spread.
While Democrats have focused squarely on Trump’s initial attempts to minimize the threat of the virus and his unsteady leadership, Republicans have countered by aiming attention at Beijing’s early coverup of the disease and emerging evidence that the Communist Party has continued to severely underreport the number of cases in China. They have often accused critics of the administration’s handling of the crisis of peddling Chinese talking points.
The GOP argument has been touted most forcefully by longtime China hawks — including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and John Bolton, the former White house national security adviser — who cite the coronavirus outbreak as more evidence of Beijing's malign conduct that should accelerate a U.S. strategic pivot toward a more confrontational approach to the rising Asia power. But it also has provided a ballast for Trump’s aides and political allies to try to deflect blame from the president for the crucial weeks his administration squandered in failing to adequately prepare, as Trump dismissed the virus as a flu-like illness that would “miraculously” go away.
“The reality is we could have been better off if China had been more forthcoming,” Vice President Pence said on CNN this week, when asked if the administration had been slow to respond to the outbreak.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/as-trump-faces-heat-on-coronavirus-response-republicans-try-to-elevate-chinas-role-in-domestic-political-debate/ar-BB128Ktv?li=BBnb7Kz
Sorry GOPers. What ever China did does not absolve Drumpf's incompetence.
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