President Donald Trump is not saying if he actually asked officials to slow down coronavirus testing.
On Monday, Trump was asked by Scrippsâ Joe St. George if he directed officials to slow down coronavirus testing, but he did not directly answer the question.
He said, âWe do more testing than any country in the world by far. Twenty-five million tests, other countries do one million. ⌠As you do more tests, it shows more and more cases.â
He continued to suggest that if testing did slow down âwe wouldnât show nearly as many cases.âÂ
He also noted that the coronavirus tests are finding people who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, and not just individuals who require hospitalizations.
But when pressed on whether or not he tried to slow down testing, Trump said, âIf it did slow down, frankly, I think weâre way ahead of ourselves â if you want to know the truth.â
âWeâve done too good a job. Because every time we goâ with 25 million tests youâre going to find more people. So then they say, âOh, we have more cases in the United States.â The reason we have more cases because we do more testing than any other country by far.â
Watch the video below:
Trump received criticism after he said during his campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday that he asked officials to slow down coronavirus testing.
âWhen you do testing to that extent youâre going to find more people, youâre going to find more cases,â he said, adding, âSo I said to my people, slow the testing down, please. They test, and they test, we got tests, and people donât know whatâs going on.â
In case you missed it:
After the rally, Trump administration officials claimed that the president was joking and denied that he asked to slow the testing, as IJR reported.
However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, âThe Presidentâs efforts to slow down desperately needed testing to hide the true extent of the virus mean more Americans will lose their lives.â
She added, âThe American people are owed answers about why President Trump wants less testing when experts say much more is needed.â
