Nancy Pelosi Went on Fox News and Said Trump Deserves an F on Coronavirus Testing

Andrew Harnik/AP

The coronavirus is a rapidly developing news story, so some of the content in this article might be out of date. Check out our most recent coverage of the coronavirus crisis, and subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.

On Sunday, in her first appearance on Fox News since 2017, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that a new $400 billion relief bill could come “soon” but also slammed President Donald Trump’s “weak” response to the coronavirus pandemic for failing to put forward science-based plans to address the pandemic. 

“He doesn’t take responsibility. He places blame—blame on others,” Pelosi told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. “And that might have been okay before, but we cannot continue down a path that is—again, I’ll come back to science, science, science, evidence, data on how we should go forward.”

She also sharply criticized Trump’s leadership when it comes to expanding testing for COVID-19, telling Wallace, “We’re way late on it, and that is a failure. The president gets an F—a failure—on the testing.”

Her comments came as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicated on CNN that the Trump administration and congressional Democrats could reach an agreement on yet another aid package would include $300 billion to replenish funds for a federal small business loan program that ran out last week. Mnuchin said he hoped the Senate would pass the deal—which also includes $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing—on Monday, followed by a House vote on Tuesday.

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate