USA Today allowed Trump’s toady and former chief of staff criticize the country’s coronavirus testing. Trump has frequently boasted about the United States’ testing capabilities compared to other countries. He has wrongly and repeatedly attributed a rise in coronavirus cases to expanded testing, even though the surges in cases in hard-hit states exceed the increases in testing and hospitals are facing growing strains.
Mulvaney, who was previously a Republican congressman representing South Carolina, wrote that rather than focusing on giving Americans another round of stimulus checks, future legislation from Congress should aim to address the public health crisis. The reason people aren’t traveling and going on vacations is not necessarily because they lack the funds to do so, Mulvaney wrote, but because they are afraid of the health consequences.
“I know it isn’t popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a testing problem in this country,” Mick Mulvaney, who is currently the U.S.’ special envoy to Northern Ireland, wrote in an op-ed for CNBC.
Mulvaney described his family’s efforts to get tested for the coronavirus, noting that they had to wait up to a week to receive his son’s results, while being told his daughter didn’t meet the criteria for receiving a test, even though she was planning on visiting her grandparents.
“That is simply inexcusable at this point in the pandemic,” Mulvaney said.
Asked about Mulvaney’s stance that testing was still an issue, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a news briefing that the U.S. is “doing a pretty good job” on testing. She is delusional.