Al Gore Blasts Trump: 'You Can't Gaslight a Virus'

By Marty Johnson, The Hill

31 March 20

ormer Vice President Al Gore criticized President Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Monday night, saying that he misled the public with his early comments on the virus.

"I’m afraid many [Americans] have been misled into thinking that some of his earlier statements about using the word hoax — and he used it in a specialized way — but saying it was going to disappear, those kinds of things. I feel badly for those who believe that stuff and have not been protecting themselves,” Gore told CNN's Don Lemon.

Continuing, Gore added: “Now, I think the president — to his credit — has been moving away from that. I think he’s learned that you can’t gaslight a virus. You’ve really got to pay attention to what the scientific facts are.”

Trump's tone regarding the coronavirus, which has infected more than 164,000 people in the U.S., has markedly changed since he declared the pandemic a national health emergency. 

Since then, the administration called on the country to social distance for 15 days — an order that was extended to the end of April on Monday — and Trump signed into law Congress's $2 trillion stimulus package in an attempt to invigorate the country's flailing economy.

Numerous states around the country have issued stay-at-home orders and have begun to prosecute individuals and businesses who blatantly ignore the measure.