House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that President Donald Trump “gets an F” on testing efforts for the novel coronavirus during an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace Sunday.
Pelosi’s appearance on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace” was her first on the network since 2017, according to a previous press release from the network. She spoke to Wallace about helping more U.S. workers navigate through the coronavirus as well as her thoughts on the president.
“The president gets an F, a failure, on the testing,” Pelosi said.
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Wallace pointed out that Pelosi criticized Trump’s plan, announced Thursday, to reopen the country. Pelosi said that “the White House’s vague and inconsistent document does nothing to make up for the president’s failure to listen to the scientists and produce and distribute national rapid testing.”
“Don’t you believe Dr. Fauci?” Wallace asked. (RELATED: Nancy Pelosi On Trump After Reporter Asks About Coronavirus: ‘I’ve Thought He Should Be Tested For A Long Time Now’)
“Yes,” Pelosi admitted. “Well, he said if this were done properly. Well, it hasn’t been done. On March 4, we passed our first bill, bipartisan. Testing. Testing. Testing. It’s over six weeks since then. And it hasn’t been done. So he’s saying, if it is done properly. We’re already very late on that. But he’s right, it has to be testing. It has to be tracing, contact tracing. It has to be treatment. And it has to be quarantine.”
“It’s part of something bigger as well, to be done properly. But we’re way late on it and that is a failure. The president gets an F, a failure on the testing. But Dr. Fauci’s right. If it is done properly, it hasn’t been and I think when he puts in the ‘if it’s done’ is an admission that it hasn’t been done,” she suggested.
Pelosi also addressed Tuesday comments where she called Trump a “weak person” and a “poor leader.” Wallace noted that Trump “goes after” Pelosi, making it “a two-way street.” He asked if Pelosi thinks if “those kinds of partisan attacks” by her “are constructive in the middle of a national crisis.”
“Well, I’ll tell you why it came to that,” Pelosi responded. “I was very prayerful on Easter. It was one of the first days I didn’t have to be working every minute. And I could reflect and be prayerful. And what I decided was that the president’s made many mistakes.”
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Pelosi continued on to say that Trump has continued “to put forth proposals that were not science-based.” She said that he will “blame anybody” and that “leaders take responsibility,” which is why she made the comments.
“Blame the governors, blame me, blame the World Health Organization,” Pelosi said. “Leaders – leaders take responsibility. So I said he’s a weak leader. He doesn’t take responsibility. He places blames – blame on others. And that might have been okay for before, but we cannot continue down a path that is, again, I’ll come back to science, science, science, evidence, data on how we could go forward.”