‘He knew, he knew, he knew’: MSNBC’s Morning Joe bashes Trump for lying about deadly COVID-19 pandemic

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough ripped President Donald Trump and his staff for purposefully downplaying the coronavirus in hopes of saving the stock market.

The president told Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward that he knew COVID-19 was much worse than the flu and could spread through the air, but the "Morning Joe" host said Trump's recorded statements show he intentionally lied to Americans about those basic facts about the deadly pandemic.

"Now we knew," he began. "We know Donald Trump knew the virus was deadly and airborne, and we know he knew millions would get sick and die. He knew it wasn't just older people who would be killed by the virus. He knew early on this would be the greatest crisis America had faced in decades."

Scarborough blasted the president's staff for letting him get away with lying.

"Members of Donald Trump's staff knew in January a plague was coming to infect America, that half a million Americans could die," he said. "That millions more would likely lose their job, that the economy would be ravaged and that those staff members, those staff members had responsibility to warn him and they did. But Donald Trump chose instead to lie to you and to lie to your family and to lie to over 300 million Americans about the storm that was coming to lay upon this land, and even as he lied month after month, his staff remained silent silent. You see, staying in good standing with Donald Trump ended up being more important to them than saving your life. Now, six months into this lie, nearly 200,000 American souls are dead, countless, countless remain ravaged by the aftermath of this horrific disease. Millions still out of work, and too many working-class Americans have had their lives destroyed while Wall Street traders and Donald Trump and his family get richer by the day."

"But Donald Trump says he didn't want Americans to panic," Scarborough continued. "No, he just wanted to sit by and watch them die, hoping the Dow Jones Industrial and the S&P would stay healthy enough to get him re-elected, but Americans got sicker by the day. You watched your parents die, some of you that watched this show had to bury your moms. I know, you told me about it, how horrible it was to be there in the hospital but not being able to be with your mom holding her hand while she passed on. Your fathers died. I've heard those sad, heartbreaking stories, too. Your husbands, your wives, and yes, your children."

"They died as well, and while that was happening, we listened to a man who swore an oath to protect you, to protect your family, to protect all of us, and we watched him lie through his teeth every afternoon around 5 o'clock, when all we really needed from him, and all we asked from him, from the beginning, was the truth," Scarborough added. "That's what we needed, and that truth would have long ago set us free from what is now an ongoing and seemingly endless nightmare."