House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has criticized President Donald Trump for a lack of preparedness of his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, but last month the speaker was urging people to patron San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Pelosi took a tour through Chinatown on February 24, where she decried alleged racism that was occurring against Asian Americans as a result of the virus, which originated in the Chinese province of Wuhan. (RELATED: Pelosi Lies About House Bill On CNN: ‘Everything We Are Suggesting Here Relates To COVID-19’)
“It’s exciting to be here, especially at this time to be able to be unified with our community,” Pelosi said at the time. “We want to be vigilant about what is out there in other places. We want to be careful about how we deal with it, but we do want to say to people ‘Come to Chinatown. Here we are, careful, safe and come join us.'”
Pelosi said Sunday that the president was in “denial at the beginning,” accusing him of not originally taking the virus serious enough. Pelosi’s home state of California is one of nearly 30 states in the U.S. currently under lockdown over the pandemic. (RELATED: Maryland Becomes Latest State To Lockdown Over Coronavirus Pandemic
Other Democrats have criticized Trump for not responding to the pandemic quickly enough, including Democratic New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who’s city has been devastated by the outbreak. However, de Blasio and New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot repeatedly urged citizens to go about their normal lives, as recently as a couple of weeks ago.