President Trump opened up Friday in a broad-ranging interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace. During the 40-minute conversation, Trump said recent statistics regarding U.S. COVID-19 deaths are misleading, criticized Democratic opponent Joe Biden and expressed deep concerns about mail-in voting, which Democrats have pushed as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The president pushed back against critics of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying, “I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world,” arguing against statistics Wallace presented from Johns Hopkins University that ranked the U.S. as seventh in the world in overall deaths from COVID-19. He offered a sheet of White House statistics that, Wallace said, show the U.S. rate ahead of Spain and Italy but worse than Brazil and South Korea.
Later in the 40-minute interview, Trump warned against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s plans for the U.S. “Biden wants to come in and ruin our country, triple your taxes,” Trump said. “He will destroy this country, but it won’t be him. It will be the radical left. The same type ideology that took over Venezuela, one of the richest countries in the world. They now have no water, they have no food and they have no medicine,” Trump said, adding if voters elect Biden, “That’s going to happen here.”
When asked if he would accept a potential loss well, Trump responded with his concerns about mail-in voting, saying it would “rig the election.” When Wallace pressed him about whether that meant he might not accept the election results, Trump responded, “I don’t know. I have to see. … I’ll keep you in suspense.” To a further question about accepting the results, Trump said, “No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time either.” {eoa}
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