‘FIRST I’VE HEARD OF THAT’

Peter Navarro Squirms on CNN When Asked About Trump’s Inflated Coronavirus Death Theory

The White House adviser could not defend Trump’s theory that deaths from the coronavirus are being inflated. 

President Donald Trump tweeted or retweeted more than 65 times on Saturday and Sunday alone, including one birthday message to his wife and several attacks on Fox News. Could White House economic adviser Peter Navarro really be expected to keep track of them all? 

If Navarro had been able to keep up with Trump’s Twitter barrage, he may have seen this question coming from CNN’s John Berman on New Day Monday morning: “What evidence do you have, if any, that people are inflating the mortality rate to make the president look bad?” 

“That's the first I’ve heard of that, not my lane, John, next question,” Navarro replied.

“You see no evidence?” Berman asked again. 

“That’s, that’s not even on my radar screen,” Navarro stammered. 

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“The president retweeted something over the weekend suggesting that people were making it seem like more people are dying or it’s deadlier somehow to hurt him electorally. But you see no evidence of that yourself?” Berman asked a third time. 

“I’m focused on the supply chain, John,” Navarro said, before repeating, “that’s the first one I’ve heard of that.”

In fact, it’s a claim that Trump and those who surround him have been making for weeks. Primetime hosts on Fox News as well as talk-radio star Rush Limbaugh began pushing the inflated death theory in early April. The following week, the president directly accused New York of deliberating “adding” to its coronavirus death toll.   

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