August 18, 2020

By Emily Singer

American Independent Foundation

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) gave a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention Monday night, slamming Donald Trump’s failure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and connecting that failure to the ongoing economic crisis plaguing the country.

To date, more than 5.4 million people have been infected with the coronavirus in the United States, and 170,419 have died. Trump’s critics and health experts alike have said that the administration’s slow response to the pandemic only served to worsen its impact and the still-rising death toll.

“Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs,” Sanders said on Monday night, referencing Trump’s continued visits to his various clubs and resorts amid the outbreak.

From the first night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention:

This president is not just a threat to our democracy, but by rejecting science, he has put our lives and health in jeopardy.

Trump has attacked doctors and scientists trying to protect us from the pandemic, while refusing to take strong action to produce the masks, gowns, and gloves our health care workers desperately need. Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs.

His actions fanned this pandemic, resulting in over 170,000 deaths and a nation still unprepared to protect its people. Furthermore, Trump’s negligence has exacerbated the economic crisis we are now experiencing.

Since this pandemic began, over 30 million people have lost their jobs and many have lost their health insurance. Millions of working families are wondering how they will feed their kids, and they’re worried that they will be evicted from their homes.

And how has trump responded? Instead of maintaining the $600 a week unemployment supplement that workers were receiving, and the $1,200 emergency checks that many of you received, instead of helping small businesses, Trump concocted fraudulent executive orders that do virtually nothing to address the crisis while threatening the very future of Social Security and Medicare.

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