Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) is slamming President Donald Trump for his highly publicized disinfectant suggestion to treat the coronavirus.
Schumer took to Twitter to share his reaction to Trump’s suggestion of ingesting disinfectant as a possible treatment for the virus. The New York lawmaker also reiterated what he believes is the immediate priority to combat the coronavirus.
“With President Trump’s press conference last night, it looks like we have a quack medicine salesman on TV. Injecting disinfectant? No.” Schumer tweeted. “He must focus on testing, testing, testing.”
With President Trump’s press conference last night, it looks like we have a quack medicine salesman on TV.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 24, 2020
Injecting disinfectant? No.
He must focus on testing, testing, testing.
Schumer also voiced his disapproval of Trump’s remarks during his interview with NPR. He expressed concerns about the danger of the president’s suggestions.
“We seemed to have a quack medicine salesman on television. He’s talking about things like disinfectant in the lungs,” Schumer said during the interview on Friday.
Schumer went on to discuss the dominant focus — testing. He revealed specifics about the next coronavirus bill and the funding included in that bill to ramp up testing.
“We’ve forced him now to come up with a national testing regime. We need tests in this bill. We’ve given $25 billion to do it and $11 billion to the states so they can do some of the testing and the contact tracing, money to the feds so they can set up a supply chain so that we can actually manufacture enough tests and swabs and everything else that’s needed. We improved things greatly in this 3-5 bill and now we have to… we can’t force the White House. They’re under our Constitution. They execute the laws. We can do oversight. We can prod them. We can push them. We can improve the legislation.”
Schumer is also challenging Trump to focus on how he is going to improve and implement testing.
He continued, “But we need real focus in the White House on what needs to be done. Instead of talking about disinfectant, the president should be talking about how he’s going to implement testing, which every expert says is the quickest path to get us moving again,” he added.
Listen to Schumer’s remarks below:
Schumer’s comments and interview follow reports about Thursday’s White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing.
The president faced heightened criticism from lawmakers, doctors, and health experts after suggesting disinfectant injections to treat coronavirus, as reported on IJR.
“I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute,” Trump said, adding, “Is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”
See the president’s remarks below:
"I certainly wouldn't recommend the internal ingestion of a disinfectant," says FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, responding to President Trump suggesting the use of a disinfectant that can kill a Covid-19 infection "by injection inside." #CNNTownHall https://t.co/IlD9ZOfPy7 pic.twitter.com/jpFttUrZZE
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) April 24, 2020
Despite the criticism Trump has faced for the statement, the White House has fired back on behalf of the president insisting the comments were taken “out of context.”
On Friday morning, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany released a statement that reads, “President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing.”
