'American fiasco': House coronavirus oversight report rips Trump admin's pandemic response
The House subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis issued a report Friday blasting the Trump administration's response to pandemic, calling it "among the worst failures of leadership in American history."
- "President Trump’s decision to mislead the public about the severity of the crisis, his failure to listen to scientists about how to keep Americans healthy, and his refusal to implement a coordinated national plan to stop the coronavirus have all contributed to devastating results."
- The administration "engaged in a persistent pattern of political interference during the pandemic, repeatedly overruling and sidelining top scientists and undermining Americans’ health in an attempt to benefit the president politically." The subcommittee's investigators "identified at least 61 instances in which Trump administration officials injected politics into public health."
- "The administration’s implementation of relief programs passed by Congress has also been marred by fraud, waste, and abuse," the report says, and the subcommittee's "investigations identified more than $4 billion in potential fraud in small business programs."
- The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service mishandled stimulus payments to low-income Americans, leaving those payments unclaimed 9 million people who might be eligible but never registered to receive them.