WASHINGTON—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says President Donald Trump’s criticism of China for the pandemic is an attempt to divert attention from domestic issues.
“What the president is saying about China is interesting. It’s an interesting diversion,” she said at a May 14 press conference, in response to a question by The Epoch Times about whether the regime in Beijing should be held accountable for the delayed COVID-19 response.
“Right now, our focus should be on meeting the needs of the American people,” she said.
“There'll be plenty of time for an after-action review,” she noted. And it’s “urgent and needed” for scientists “to trace the origins of such a pandemic scientifically, but not politically.”
Pelosi also urged lawmakers to focus their “energy on how we go forward [instead of] making judgments about what this administration did or didn’t do.”
“It was either stupidity, incompetence or it was deliberate, one or the other,” Trump told Maria Bartiromo on May 14 in an interview for Fox Business Network. “But you know the worst of all, whether it came from the lab or came from the bats, it all came from China. And they should’ve stopped it. They could have stopped at that source.”
The virus has sickened more than 1.47 million people in the United States and killed more than 89,000 as of May 17.
Public opinion in the United States has shifted drastically against the Chinese regime after the pandemic. In a recent poll, Americans reported bipartisan distrust of the Chinese regime for its handling of the outbreak.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) criticized Democrats for blaming Trump instead of China.
“Not one Democrat has come forward with an idea to hold China accountable,” Graham told Fox News on May 3.
There’s a growing call from Republicans to make China pay for damages caused by the pandemic. House Republicans on May 7 launched a “China Task Force” to investigate Beijing’s role in the spread of the virus.
Rather than pointing at China, Pelosi urged Washington to focus on the reopening of the economy safely.
“Instead of diverting attention from mistakes that may have been made here, let’s just put that all aside and go forward for what we can do, working together for the good of the American people.”