- Presidential historian Michael Beschloss told MSNBC that President Donald Trump’s legacy will always be linked to the catastrophic death toll of COVID-19 in the U.S.
- “Donald Trump is not going to change the record. He was largely responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans who did not need to die,” said Beschloss.
- On Wednesday, almost 339,000 Americans died of COVID-19 under Trump’s supervision. It is the highest reported number of COVID-19 deaths in the world.
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Michael Beschloss, a prominent presidential historian, in an interview with MSNBC this week, said that historians will need time to fully appreciate President Donald Trump’s legacy, but that he will never be able to escape the COVID-19 death toll.
“Donald Trump is not going to change the record. He was largely responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans who did not need to die,” said Beschloss. “Millions of other people who suffered from greed did not have to suffer … This is really Nero’s problem as Rome burns.”
The USA has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities reported in the world.
As of Wednesday morning, there were more than 19.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nearly 339,000 deaths reported by the virus in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins. Public health experts have consistently criticized the way Trump is dealing with the pandemic, arguing that a more consistent response from the president could have prevented tens of thousands of deaths.
Beschloss and Mehdi Hasan, who interviewed the historian while presenting MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” program, also criticized Trump for his recent actions that nearly derailed the newest COVID-19 stimulus project.
Trump delayed economic assistance to millions of Americans by initially refusing to sign a $ 900 billion COVID-19 stimulus package this month. The president said he wanted the direct payments of $ 600 included as part of the legislation to be increased to $ 2,000.
But Trump’s last-minute demands were against what his own Treasury secretary and Republican leaders in Congress had advocated in lengthy and tedious negotiations over stimulating Democrats. Critics of the president said he basically delayed the desperately needed assistance to Americans to score cheap political points.
Beschloss said that high-ranking presidents, like Abraham Lincoln, were known for their compassion and empathy. But Trump does not qualify in that regard, he said.
“Donald Trump is the kind of person we’ve never met before in the presidency and I hope we never see him again,” said Beschloss. “When you have a president who has no empathy, who has no compassion, you see a show like the one we saw this week.”
Watch the clip below:
—MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 29, 2020