On Thursday’s “Morning Joe,” host Joe Scarborough called President Trump’s suggestion that Black Lives Matter protests and border crossings were contributing to coronavirus cases in America a “racist theory.”
Trump made those suggestions during his coronavirus briefing on Wednesday.
Referring to a spike in the Sun Belt region, Trump said, “There are likely a number of causes for the spike in infections. Cases started to rise among young Americans shortly after demonstrations, which you know very well about.”
He went on, “We’re also sharing a 2,000-mile border with Mexico, as we know very well, and cases are surging in Mexico, unfortunately.”
The president also said a newly-constructed stretch of wall on the border has “had a great, positive impact on people coming in,” which has “helped greatly.”
Scarborough said Trump was blaming people of color for the surge in cases when it was his own actions that were to blame.
“The coronavirus spikes that are being caused because people blindly following his lead have been contemptuous of wearing masks, contemptuous of social distancing, contemptuous of issuing stay-at-home orders, have caused the spread in their states. But what is he doing? He’s blaming Black and brown people. He’s blaming Black Lives Matter. He’s blaming those protests when it’s very interesting that hospitals in New York City — the epicenter of those protests — the lowest since March the 18th,” he said, cheering for low hospitalization rates in New York.
This isn’t the first time Trump has associated race — indirectly or directly — with the coronavirus. In recent weeks, he has been increasingly referring to it as the “China Virus.” During his poorly attended Tulsa rally in June, Trump used the derogatory term “kung flu.”
Watch above, via MSNBC.
