Conservative author Mark Steyn said Friday that people who want to see President Donald Trump die of the coronavirus are part of “a sickness” and “a political bloodlust.”
“There’s a political bloodlust in the air,” Steyn told Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “Just filling in a voting ballot doesn’t satisfy it for these guys. But it’s a sickness. If you’re actually doing this stuff in the public, on the Internet, you should think about what it says about you, not what it says about the president and the first lady.”
The president announced early Friday morning that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus. Trump adviser Hope Hicks, who was traveling with the president on Air Force One this week, also tested positive. (RELATED: Al Sharpton: Trump Opponents Should Not Use His Coronavirus Diagnosis To Point Fingers Or Say ‘I Told You So’)
“I was shocked by these people actively urging on the death of the president,” Steyn said in reference to numerous social media comments from Trump haters shown on-air during Carlson’s show. A poll released Friday indicated that 40% of Democrats were “happy” that Trump had contracted COVID-19.
“I’d advise the president to pay no attention to it … If you live in a free society and you’re hoping your political leadership dies, you’ve actually flown the coop of self-governing societies and you should seriously be looking yourself in the mirror and actually wondering if you’re fit to live in a responsible, self-governing society,” Steyn said.
Earlier in show the conservative pundit addressed comments from Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who suggested Trump’s reelection campaign wouldn’t be hampered by the president’s quarantine because “surrogates” like Russian President Vladimir Putin would be assisting him.
“This buffoon … one of 100 from 300 million people who gets to sit in the United States Senate, thinks this has something to do with Putin,” Steyn said. “Chris Murphy thinks, ‘Ha, ha, ha: the president being taken to the hospital is just a great opportunity to dust off the old four- year-old Putin jokes.’ Pathetic!”
Murphy has tweeted that he has seen documents proving that there is “a giant, multi-layer Russian effort to help Trump in 2020.”