Fox Business host Trish Regan claims the coronavirus outbreak is just “another attempt to impeach” President Donald Trump.
On Monday, Regan claimed that Democrats “blame him and only him for a virus that originated halfway around the world.” She said they were trying to “create mass hysteria to encourage a market selloff” and “stop our economy dead in its tracks.” And she said Democrats, the media and even investors were allowing their hate to “spiral out of control” and cause markets to crash.
As she spoke, a graphic reading “CORONAVIRUS IMPEACHMENT SCAM” appeared on the screen:
Regan’s comments were at odds with those of Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host who on Monday night seemed to call out other Fox voices and even the president, saying they “have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem.”
Regan’s monologue also created a false impression that Trump was being blamed for the virus when, in fact, criticism has focused on his bungled response to the crisis as well as his spreading of misinformation. For example, on Feb. 26, Trump said there were just 15 cases in the country and within a couple of days, that number was “going to be down to close to zero.”
There are now more than 750 cases in the United States.
Even conservative media has slammed Trump’s response.
“President Trump’s bombastic style has served him well through many stages of his political career, but as the coronavirus spreads rapidly throughout the United States, it is exposing how deeply unsuited he is to deal with a genuine crisis that he can’t bluff his way through,” wrote The Washington Examiner’s executive editor Philip Klein.
Regan’s wild defense of the president caused her name to trend on Twitter ― and much of the reaction wasn’t complimentary: