Trump Blames Obama For Coronavirus Tests That Didn’t Exist Until This Year

Over the weekend, Donald Trump continued to push the idea that testing for the coronavirus was slowed because his administration “inherited a lot of garbage” from the Obama administration. On Saturday, Trump told reporters that the CDC “had obsolete tests, old tests, broken tests.” The statement makes no sense whatsoever since a test couldn’t have been developed before the virus was discovered, which first happened in China in late 2019. That was almost three years after Obama left the White House. Additionally, the World Health Organization offered to provide tests for the coronavirus, but the Centers for Disease Control insisted on developing its own. But the first round of tests didn’t work accurately, the resulting delay allowed the virus to promulgate across the country for weeks during February and early March. You can see Trump deflect responsibility in the video below. By the way, the softball question framed to blame Obama came from a reporter at the ultra Trump-loving One America News Network (OANN).

“We inherited a lot of garbage … horrible ventilators” — Trump responds to a second question from ultra-sycophantic OAN, this one about coronavirus testing failures, by trying to shift blame to Obama (Obama left office in 2017 and the virus didn’t reach the US until 2020) pic.twitter.com/II60SLGOrn

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 19, 2020

BREAKING: COVID19 testing was severely delayed because the Trump Administration CDC’s lab was contaminated.

…But Trump blames Obama for the lack of a test that didn’t even exist for a virus that didn’t exist when he was President. And now Republicans want to fire Fauci.

— Ms. Krassenstein (@HKrassenstein) April 19, 2020

Trump blames Obama for leaving the shelves bare or full of useless, broken equipment.

Let’s say Obama did. What the fuck has @realDonaldTrump been doing about it for 3 years? Sweet FA.

The man is inadequate.

— Pitt Griffin (@pittgriffin) April 20, 2020

So Trump blames Covid on…WHO, Governors, States, China, Obama, pretty much anyone…and it turns out, it’s totally on him!!! Watch pic.twitter.com/BlBrbBEPFC

— Gareth George (@garfaroo) April 18, 2020