The Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump group led by Kellyanne Conway's husband George, and other disillusioned Republicans, has just released its latest, hitting Trump on his remarks about COVID-19 testing.
“The most deceptive, lying president in history finally told the truth. Somehow, it was more shocking than all his deceptions,” says the ad's narrator.
The clip then features Trump at this Tulsa rally telling the crowd, “When you do testing to that extent, you're gonna find more people, you're gonna find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘slow the testing down, please!'”
“Slow the testing down?” the clip's narrator asks. “Slow down our chance to save tens of thousands of lives. Slow down our understanding of where COVID is and how it's spreading. Slow down the steps to reopen the economy. Every single expert told him to test more and test faster, and now we know his response.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked about the remarks on Monday, and said, “It was a comment that he made in jest.”
Trump on Tuesday had this to say about his remarks:
“I don't kid, let me make it clear. We have got the greatest testing program anywhere in the world. We test better than anybody in the world. Our tests are the best in the world, and we have the most of them. By having more tests, we find more cases. We did 25 million tests. … Here's what I say: testing is a double-edged sword. In one way, it tells you, you have cases. In other way, you find out where the cases are and you do a good job. We are doing a great job. We have never been credited for it. We're doing the best testing job anywhere in the world.”