White House Points Finger At China For Delayed COVID-19 Response

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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as Vice President Mike Pence looks on during a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic in the press briefing room of the White House on March 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Friday on the $2 trillion stimulus package to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mike Pence blames China for the White House's delayed response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Governments globally are working towards curbing the COVID-19 pandemic but the Trump administration has faced a lot of heat for the way the White House has dealt with Coronavirus. Mike Pence, however, has refuted that the White House is to be blamed for the situation. During a recent interview with Wolf Blitzer, Pence stated that it isn't the White House that's to blame -- it's China's initial response to the pandemic.

"Well, the reality is that we could have been better off if China had been more forthcoming," Pence said. "The reality is that China's been more transparent with regard to the coronavirus than certainly, they were with other infectious diseases over the last 15 years. But what appears evident now is that long before the world learned in December that China was dealing with this, and maybe as much as a month earlier than that, the outbreak was real in China."

Though there have been a few instances where Trump has downplayed the severity of the virus, including his suggestion that this would be resolved by Easter, Pence said that he "couldn't be more proud" with how this pandemic has been dealt with. Even in those instances where Trump's claims seemed to be out of touch with the reality of the situation, Pence said that it was merely optimism for the American people.

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Pence's statements regarding China were recently validated in a report from Bloomberg who said that U.S. Officials confirmed a report found China's numbers underrepresented "both total cases and deaths it's suffered from the disease." However, the report also points out that the Trump administration ignored information from U.S. Intelligence agency and the World Health Organization. 

What do you think of the White House's response to Coronavirus? Sound off in the comments. 


About The Author
Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.
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