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Ahead of Trump’s rally in Rome, Georgia Democrats, COVID-19 survivors hit Trump for his failed response to coronavirus
November 1, 2020
Atlanta — Ahead of Trump’s rally in Rome tonight, the Democratic Party of Georgia hosted a press conference with Rome Democrats, slamming Trump’s ineffective and chaotic leadership on the coronavirus.
They highlighted how Georgians are bearing the brunt of Trump’s failed response to the pandemic that has killed nearly 8,000 Georgians and infected more than 360,000 people in our state. The speakers also shared their personal experience with the disease, and talked about why we need Joe Biden in the White House to defeat the pandemic, build back better, and protect our health care.
Watch the full press conference here.
Wendy Davis, Rome City Commissioner:
“We can’t take another reckless Trump visit, or another four years of his administration’s failures. Floyd County is already seeing spikes in covid-19 infection rates, and we continue to lose loved ones to the virus that could have been contained if Donald Trump had not failed us.
Our schools here in the city of Rome have moved completely virtual ,with over 600 students, staff and faculty in quarantine due to the Trump administration’s failed leadership in protecting them. In two days, we are going to kick Donald Trump out of office, and replace him with Joe Biden, who will take this crisis seriously.”
Ben Amis, Vice Chair of Floyd Democratic Party:
“I want us to be very clear about what’s happening today. Donald Trump is coming to our town, to our community, to distract Georgians from his failed policies to address this public health problem. Over 360,000 Georgians have been infected by covid-19, and nearly 8,000 have died during this pandemic, and he has no plan. He is here to distract from the fact that there is nothing he is going to do, nothing he has done — to help our community, to help our state, to help our country — battle this public health crisis.
His own chief-of-staff, Mark Meadows, has even said this much — they have no intentions of doing anything to help the American people, to help Georgians, to help anyone, fix this problem.
But we can change this. On Tuesday, we have the opportunity to throw Donald Trump out of office. We can elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, president and vice president of the United States, and I hope everyone will join me in doing that on Tuesday.”
Terrell Shaw, retired teacher in Rome, Georgia:
“Covid-19 hospital stays are soaring in Floyd County again. And we know from the news that that’s happening all over the country. And then I turned on the radio and heard about what the president was saying in the great lakes at his rallies up there. He was once again, even in late October, still downplaying this virus. And he added a new twist! He suggested that perhaps our medical personnel are exaggerating the death numbers.
Well I’ve got a sad story to tell Mr. Trump — In July, I attended the funeral of a beloved former student of mine, only 23 years old. I heard his mother’s tears and weeping. And I thought about the nine or ten year old who was in my class nearly a decade ago. That sweet, talented, kind little boy. And here he was 23, just entering his adulthood and robbed from us by the COVID virus…
And I’ve got news for him. I watched that boy’s casket lower into the grave. Mr. Trump…each one of those are individual human tragedies. And we know that he had not lied to us, as we now know through his own voice recordings, if he had not lied to us about the situation way back in late Spring, if he had provided the leadership that any of our great presidents would have provided in a situation like this, that count would be much much lower. That’s got me fired up…I know I can trust Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, to get in there, to trust the science, to pull us all together, to try to unite the country.”
Jessie Reed, resident of Rome, Georgia and mother of three:
“My husband and I searched for accurate information as what we were hearing from the president clearly wasn’t matching up from what we were seeing in our community and around the country….We watched with confusion as the virus and wearing a mask became politicized. Our city’s mask mandate was overruled by our governor. We stood in disbelief as we tried to reconcile the death toll passing 150,000 with Trump’s continued claim that the virus was passing and that the numbers were ‘very good.’
We keep waiting for some kind of relief, or some leadership but it never comes. We keep wondering how bad it has to get before the president takes it seriously. But it’s become abundantly clear that is not going to happen. Every time I hear him downplay the virus and tout the 99% survival rate, it feels like a slap in the face…
The president has not only failed to protect this country, he’s contributed to the destructive nature of the virus by spreading misinformation, downplaying the severity, politicizing basic precautions such as mask wearing and failing to pass another round of aid. We need someone who will take this pandemic seriously, understand how it’s affecting American citizens, care about it, and provide some kind of compassionate leadership. President Trump has absolutely failed us in every way.”
Daniel Blackman, Democratic nominee for Georgia Public Service Commission District 4:
“We know the president and the governor and other leaders are not the cause of the problem, but the persistence and the lack of leadership in these areas is too critical for us to allow us to treat this like just another election.
We have a message for Donald Trump which is to stop the relentless assault on the Affordable Care Act. We’ve seen it time and time again
Look, it didn’t have to be this bad…On this very day, Donald Trump has taken steps to make this crisis worse, not better, but worse. He’s failed us because he was too busy fighting to take away our health care, with no plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. We may not always agree as Democrats and Republicans, but we can’t just argue that something doesn’t work without a plan to put in place. In two days, Georgians can elect Joe Biden, who will be a president that won’t give up on them and who will prioritize their health and safety.”
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