MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski laid the blame for tens of thousands of coronavirus deaths on President Donald Trump.
As more reporting comes out showing the president ignored dire warnings about the pandemic back in January and February, the "Morning Joe" co-hosts blasted Trump for downplaying the threat and continuing to endanger public health.
"He knew explicitly how bad it was," Scarborough said. "He knew explicitly, as he praised [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping], that China was suppressing information. Everybody should read this Washington Post story because coronavirus was not a footnote in the [presidential daily briefing]. It was at the core of what the intelligence community was worried about."
"Knowing that, hearing that a dozen times, the president still went out and downplayed, after he put in the travel restriction to China, spent a month and a half downplaying how serious this was going to be," he added.
Those statements endangered public health, Scarborough said, and continue to pose a threat.
"I'm just saying, there wasn't just a political impact to that," Scarborough said. "There was a public health care impact to that. People went out because they believed the president. People didn't socially distance. There are still polls that show, even now, supporters of Donald Trump are less likely to social distance, supporters of Donald Trump are less likely to understand how serious this pandemic is. His words have had a negative impact on the public health of Americans, so it's not -- this is not just a political matter. This is a public health matter. I mean, he is responsible for it."
"We ask, again, on this day, that he starts telling Americans the truth, he stops with his parade of CEOs and all the other nonsense he does in the afternoon, and let Dr. [Anthony] Fauci and Dr. [Deborah] Birx speak."
Brzezinski then laid the blame at Trump's feet.
"Let them run these things and actually go to your briefings, listen to the briefings, however you can try and retain information, as best you can," she said. "If you can't read, if you don't read because it doesn't work for you, because you never did, then try and get the information. It was on you to read those briefings back in January. It was on you to listen to the warnings, and you didn't. That's why we're here."
