Administration officials are bent on amending Donald Trump's statements that he made during his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On June 23, the president said he was not joking about telling his administration to decelerate coronavirus testing in the United States, wracking up the protection system created by senior White House aides who insisted his remarks were made facetiously.
Responding to reporters who asked whether or not his remarks at the campaign event in Tulsa were made in jest, Trump insisted he doesn't joke. The president explained that the United States has the world's best testing program, and they are capable of carrying out tests better than anybody else in the world.
Trump added that by carrying out more tests, more cases are detected. Vice President Mike Pence and a slew of other high ranking administration officials have been trying to clean up the president's remarks from his recently concluded Tulsa rally, where he reiterated his debatable logic about testing rates while addressing an arena teeming with his supporters.
Justifying his order to reduce testing, Trump said the more testings they carry out, the more cases they will find. In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Trump never made such a specific remark, adding that his remarks were to be understood as a joke.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted during a news briefing that the remark was made in jest, adding that any suggestion that testing has been reduced is not set in stone. During a conference call, Pence tried to amend the political fallout, telling governors that the president's testing comments were nothing more than a passing observation.
In an interview with Scripps Networks, the president admitted that he asked his administration to slow down coronavirus testing, adding that even if they curtail the testing, they would not slow nearly as many cases. McEnany, on the other hand, denied that Trump's statements were made in earnest, saying the president was using sarcasm to make a serious point.
Over 120,000 American people have succumbed to the coronavirus, and the total number of confirmed cases has gone up to 2 to 3 million across the country. Keeping in line with that, public health experts say the United States requires more coronavirus testing, not less, but Trump stuck to his reasoning.
Trump suggests with more coronavirus testing, the United States shows more cases than any other country. Smaller testing would show fewer cases, Trump tweeted, calling testing as a double-edged sword.