Pressed to comment on the staggering new COVID-19 death toll, President Trump insisted it could have been worse—2 million could have died instead of 200,000. “Well I think it’s a shame,” he told reporters before heading out to his largely mask-less campaign rally in Pennsylvania. “I think if we didn’t do it properly and didn’t do it right, you’d have two and a half million deaths,” he said. The comment came after the president was initially asked why he had not yet commented on the grim milestone. Trump immediately scanned the crowd of reporters for someone who might offer a friendlier line of questioning and said, “Go ahead. Uhhh, anybody else?”
