FALSEHOOD #18: Biden falsely claimed Donald Trump said COVID-19 was a hoax.

EXPLANATION: This is false. Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden claimed Trump called the virus a hoax.

Trump never called the virus a hoax. He said that Democrats’ criticism of his handling of the virus was ‘their new hoax’.

Trump said, “Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus, you know that right? Coronavirus, they’re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs. You say, ‘How’s President Trump doing?’ They go, ‘Oh, not good, not good.’ They have no clue. They don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa. They can’t even count. No, they can’t. They can’t count their votes.

One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was not a perfect conversation. They tried anything. They tried it over and over. They’d been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning. They lost. It’s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax.”

The following day Trump clarified that he was talking about the Democrats criticizing his response to the virus.

Trump said, “Hoax, referring to the action that they take to try and pin this on somebody because we’ve done such a good job.”

Even left-wing outlets and fact-checkers like Politifact, Snopes, Washington Post, and CNN all stated that Trump did not refer to the virus itself as a hoax.

Read Top 5 Lies About Donald Trump

SOURCES

Holan, A. D. (2020, October 8). Ask PolitiFact: Are you sure Donald Trump didn’t call the coronavirus a hoax? Politifact. Retrieved October 27, 2022, from https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/oct/08/ask-politifact-are-you-sure-donald-trump-didnt-cal/

Palma, B. (2020, March 2). Did president Trump refer to the coronavirus as a ‘hoax’? Snopes. Retrieved October 27, 2022, from https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-coronavirus-rally-remark/

Rieder, R. (2021, July 1). Trump and the ‘new hoax’. FactCheck.org. Retrieved October 27, 2022, from https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/trump-and-the-new-hoax/

Sylvester, B. (2020, March 2). Fact check: Did trump call coronavirus a ‘hoax’? The Daily Signal. Retrieved October 27, 2022, from
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailysignal.com/2020/03/02/fact-check-did-trump-call-coronavirus-a-hoax/amp/