U.S. President Donald Trump sits behind an airport model, next to the CEO of United Airlines, Scott Kirby, and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, during an announcement about a $22.5 billion renovation of Washington Dulles International Airport in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 29, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
A pair of CNN anchors issued a brutal fact-check to President Donald Trump on Wednesday over his claims that more people died from COVID-19 under the Biden administration than in his first term.
Trump has repeatedly blamed the Biden administration for the number of deaths that were caused by the pandemic, although political analysts and experts have pointed out that Trump was one of the leading proponents of misinformation about the virus.
"That isfactually correct in terms ofraw numbers, but there'simportant context missing there," CNN's Boris Sanchez said on "CNN News Central" about the president's COVID-19 death claim. "The outbreak happened withless than a year of President Trump's first term, with lessthan a year of him still inoffice. Vaccines were notdeployed until December of 2020. Notably, President Biden had to deal with several waves of coronavirus, Delta and Omicron."
Altogether, more than 1 million people died in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brianna Keilar added that Trump's claim was "misleading at best."
"These numbers have beenpoliticized over and over again," Keilar noted. "Trump's claim there is certainlymisleading. It is of note that death rates were actually higher in some areas that were pro-Trump, where there was some reticence about vaccines."