WASHINGTON — President Trump’s behavior was “a brazen invitation for something like this to happen,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday in the wake of the news he has been infected with the coronavirus.
In an interview with MSNBC, Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she was praying for the commander-in-chief and the first lady but swiftly attacked his attitude toward the pandemic.
“This is tragic, it’s very sad, but it’s also something that, again, going into crowds unmasked and all the rest, was sort of a brazen initiation for something like this to happen,” the speaker said.
“It’s sad that it did but nonetheless hopeful that it will be a transition to a saner approach to what this virus is all about,” she said.
The speaker and the president have not spoken for almost a year and have a bitterly acrimonious relationship.
Pelosi has been meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin this week to hammer out another coronavirus aid package.
She told CNN Mnuchin has tested negative for the virus and while she is awaiting her own test results, her doctor said it was unlikely she had contracted the disease if Mnuchin was negative.
The California Democratic lawmaker said she received the news of Trump’s diagnosis with “great sadness” and was praying for the president and his family but claimed the news should jolt the nation into taking the pandemic seriously.
“The rest of the country has to know that even with the precautions taken surrounding the president that people are susceptible, so that they should ignore the, shall we say, mocking of masks and wear masks,” she said.
“As sad as the diagnosis is that the president and first lady have, maybe it is that pivotal moment to take us to a different place as we fight this vicious virus based on science, not on politics,” she added.