[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 114 (Monday, June 22, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S3115]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. President, on COVID, over the past several weeks, there has been 
an alarming increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in a number of 
American States. Florida, Texas, Arizona, and North Carolina continue 
to report thousands of new cases each day. State officials in Texas and 
Arizona are warning about the dire number of hospitalizations. Anyone 
looking at the facts would conclude that we need to figure out what is 
causing these increases and put measures in place to limit this new 
spread of the disease.
  But President Trump does not look at the facts or try to understand 
them. Instead, the President is so consumed with his own ego, his own 
political interests and perception of how he has handled this crisis, 
that he is actually downplaying the numbers and inventing ridiculous 
excuses for why COVID-19 cases continue to increase.
  At his inadvisable and very poorly attended rally in Tulsa on 
Saturday, President Trump said that he told his administration to 
``slow the testing down, please,'' so the number of COVID cases will 
not look so bad for him. It is amazing he said that. Don't learn the 
truth about a serious and deadly disease so he might look better?
  He went on to say that testing was ``a double-edged sword.'' Let me 
break the President's statement down for a moment. By calling testing 
``a double-edged sword,'' the President means that, on one hand, 
testing could be good because it, you know, tells us who has COVID-19, 
but, on the other hand, testing might not be so good because the more 
cases make the President look bad. Who thinks like that in a time of a 
raging pandemic?
  White House officials tried to claim the President was joking, but, 
today, the Vice President denied that they were just in jest, calling 
them ``a passing observation,'' whatever that means.
  Regardless of whether he was serious or not, the President's comments 
are factually inaccurate. The increase in testing is not responsible 
for the increase in the number of cases. In fact, the rate of positive 
cases is going up in many States, which means community spread.
  There is a lie sitting at the heart of all of this. President Trump 
wants Americans to believe that the number of cases is going up because 
his administration has done such a great job on testing. The truth is, 
the administration can't even get around to spending the money Congress 
has provided for improving testing and tracing.

  Senator Murray and I sent a letter last week to HHS Secretary Azar, 
asking him why the administration hasn't disbursed the $14 billion we 
gave it to ramp up testing and the tracing capability. This $14 billion 
is just sitting there, waiting for the Trump administration to use it 
to help our country. Senator Murray and I are looking for answers. Why 
isn't the money being distributed when it is desperately needed? What 
the heck is going on?
  It is hard to imagine a more haphazard, less-focused, and less-
consistent response from an administration during a national crisis. 
Whether it is calling COVID a hoax or prescribing bleach or having his 
ego-driven rally over the weekend, the President keeps reminding us 
that he doesn't take the COVID pandemic seriously enough. Ironically, 
the best thing about the President's rally was that so few people 
attended. Otherwise, the risk of spreading COVID would have been 
significantly higher.