PANDEMIC POLITICS—TRUMP KNEW COVID WAS DEADLY: As the presidential campaign enters its final stretch, Democrats and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) advocacy groups are likely to seize on remarks President Trump made to veteran journalist Bob Woodward in which he acknowledged that he purposely misled the American public on the severity of the coronavirus. Here’s what you need to know…
- In his own words: “To be honest with you, I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told Woodward in an on-the-record conversation on March 19, which was released on Wednesday. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”
- Why it matters: The president’s admission threatens to further erode his standing with already weary AAPI voters, who have been devastated by coronavirus-related hate crimes, historically high unemployment, and unprecedented rates of anxiety and depression.
- For the record: The coronavirus has killed more than 190,000 people in the U.S., including staggering numbers of Filipino American health care workers. Asian Americans have joined Black and Hispanic Americans as among the hardest-hit groups of the pandemic, according to a recent Marshall Project and Associated Press analysis. And the infection and mortality rate for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders is higher than all other racial groups in states like California and Oregon.
- Economic nightmare: Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor also revealed that the jobless rate for Asian Americans stood at 10.7% in August, higher than at the height of the Great Recession. Many AAPI business owners are still facing their worst employment situation on record.
- Highlighting hate: Activists and AAPI lawmakers also warn that President Trump’s use of racist terms like “kung flu” continues to put Asian Americans at risk. At least one group is set to air ads in battleground states connecting the anti-Asian rhetoric to the rising number of COVID-related hate incidents, which reached 2,834 as of July 29.
