House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared on MSNBC on Monday and spoke about the direction the United States is heading amid the coronavirus pandemic under Donald Trump’s leadership, Breitbart reported.
During the discussion, host Craig Melvin pressed Pelosi on Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s push for reopening schools, which echoes the recent efforts of Trump and his administration. DeVos did not commit to urging schools to follow the guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) amid reopening, and Pelosi herself said that she is unaware of what such guidelines will look like.
“I would hope they would be responsive to the science” Pelosi said. “I’m always happy when there are new guidelines if they’re based on additional information scientifically based.”
Pelosi expressed support for reopening American schools in the presence of proper procedure ?— testing, tracing, and treatment ?— but said that the decision must be made nationally. From here, she expressed worry over the current direction of the country under Trump’s leadership.
“I’ll tell you this, I’m very afraid of where we are now because of the ignorance in the administration about what needs to be done, the recognition of the challenge that we face, and the threat to the health and well-being of the American people.”
Pelosi warned that failure to move forward with COVID-19 legislation that ensures Americans are financially supported would cause the country to “pay a big price” that will be far worse than strictly economic damage.
Despite Pelosi’s criticism of Trump’s handling of the pandemic, she recently offered him rare praise for his decision to wear a mask in public, which he previously refused to do. As reported by Politico , Pelosi said the president’s decision was a sign that he “crossed a bridge.”
“So hopefully by his example, he will change his attitude, which will be helpful in stopping the spread of the coronavirus,” she said on CNN’s State of the Union .
Pelosi also echoed her MSNBC interview and called for federal spending on coronavirus legislation, including the extension of unemployment benefits, which are set to end in a couple of weeks.
As The Inquisitr reported, Pelosi previously called Trump a coward for refusing to wear a mask amid the pandemic. According to the 80-year-old politician, the CDC has held off of mandating that Americans wear masks due to a fear of embarrassing Trump. She also noted that the practice of wearing a mask is to help others by preventing the spread of droplets from infected individuals.