MSNBC's Chris Hayes Defines Trump’s COVID-19 Failings With Damning 4-Word Epithet

CNN's Chris Cuomo, meanwhile, described the White House's pursuit of herd immunity amid the pandemic as "the stuff of a horror film."
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Chris Hayes on Wednesday summed up President Donald Trump’s catastrophic handling of the coronavirus pandemic with a four-word epithet:

“We want them infected.”

Those are the same words that former Health and Human Services science adviser Paul Alexander, a Trump appointee, used in emails advocating for the Trump administration to pursue a herd immunity strategy during the public health crisis, Politico reported earlier in the day.

“Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…” Alexander wrote in his emails, per the news outlet.

Hayes said the emails were “the smoking gun evidence” that showed “the very people at the center” of tackling the virus wanted COVID-19 to spread.

“The thing to understand about that is it is not an accident, and it is not bungling,” Hayes said. “Donald Trump, his administration as backed by Republicans in his party, in Congress, explicitly pursued a strategy that would lead to more Americans getting sick and more Americans dying, and they did this despite the fact they kept denying they were pursuing the so-called ‘herd immunity’ approach. It was always clear they were.”

CNN’s Chris Cuomo was equally outraged by the content of the emails.

“If that’s what they wanted, is that the reason behind what they did?” Cuomo asked. “Ignoring the reality of the pandemic, telling you it wasn’t real, mocking masks, telling people to come together, holding the rallies?”

“It’s the stuff of a horror film. Did Trump and Co. really sabotage safety because they wanted people sick?” the anchor continued. “It’s not me saying it. It’s one of theirs. Boy, it sure does explain the reaction that Trump had.”

Watch Hayes’ monologue above and Cuomo’s comments below:


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