Trump lies about COVID-19 death toll being due to 'blue' states

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-covid-death-toll-lower-if-dont-count-blue-states-2020-9?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral

Charles Davis
Sep 16, 2020, 7:51 PM

US President Donald Trump praised his response to the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday, defining success as nearly 200,000 dead Americans — up from the 60,000 he predicted in April, and the 100,000 he predicted in May — and argued the death toll would be lower if it excluded the most densely populated, "blue" states.

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"The blue states had tremendous death rates," he said. "If you take the blue states out, we are at a level I don't think anybody in the world would be at."

In fact, two of the top five states reporting the most COVID-19 deaths are run by Republicans: Florida and Texas. Both states were once heralded as conservative models for responding to the pandemic, having loosened restrictions early on in the crisis before experiencing a spike in cases.be

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