Did Trump Golf, Hold Rallies After Learning About COVID-19 Threat?







After Sen. Mitch McConnell suggested the government's response to the initial coronavirus outbreak was in part distracted by the president's impeachment, rebuttal memes started flying.







































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['U.S. President Donald Trump golfed several times and held a number of rallies after learning about the threat of the coronavirus.', 'U.S. President Donald Trump and the federal government have been widely criticized for what detractors described as their slow response to the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic. As of this writing, the U.S. is still facing shortages of critical medical supplies such as masks and personal protective equipment (PPE). On March 31, 2020, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell argued that the government might have been too distracted by impeachment proceedings to focus on the impending pandemic.', 'McConnell told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that the outbreak “came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.”', 'Shortly after McConnell made these remarks, a number of op-eds were published refuting this claim.\xa0Trump even responded, saying, “I don’t think I would have done any better had I not been impeached.”', 'On social media, people started sharing a list that supposedly showed all the times Trump had golfed or held rallies after being warned about an impending pandemic, arguing that if Trump had time for leisure activities and political rallies during his impeachment, then he had time to deal with disaster response:', '', 'The timeline in this tweet is generally correct.', 'Trump was officially impeached on Dec. 19, 2019. It’s not clear exactly when Trump was first alerted about the possibility of a pandemic. The Washington Post reported that U.S. Intelligence officials were warning the president about the potential scale of the coronavirus outbreak as early as January. While we don’t know a specific date, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued its first alert for U.S. clinicians to be “on the look-out for patients with respiratory symptoms and a history of travel to Wuhan, China” on Jan. 8, 2020.', 'About a month after that on Feb. 5, Trump’s impeachment trial ended when the Senate voted not to convict.', 'Before, during, and after the impeachment trial — and after the CDC issued its first warnings — Trump held political rallies and attended several golf outings.', 'As stated in the above-displayed tweet, Trump visited a golf course on Jan. 18 and 19, Feb. 1 and 15, and March 7 and 8. All of these golf outings took place at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Trump also hosted rallies on Jan. 9 (Ohio), 14 (Wisconsin), 28 (New Jersey) 30 (Iowa), and on Feb. 10 (New Hampshire), 19 (Arizona), 20 (Colorado), 21 (Nevada), and 28 (South Carolina).', 'At his rally in South Carolina on Feb. 28, Trump spoke to the audience about the new coronavirus, accusing Democrats of “politicizing” the virus and claiming the U.S. was “totally prepared.”', 'Fox News reported:', 'Speaking at the North Charleston Coliseum for more than an hour, Trump dismissed the complaints from Democrats about his handling of the virus as “their new hoax” and insisted “we are totally prepared.” He also mocked the party for its chaotic efforts to count the votes earlier this month in Iowa’s caucuses.', '“Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” Trump said, adding: “They can’t even count their votes.”', 'Speaking at length about the virus, Trump said it “starts in China, bleeds its way into various countries around the world, doesn’t spread widely at all in the United States because of the early actions” of his administration. But still, Trump argued, the Democrats are claiming that “it’s Donald Trump’s fault.”', 'To sum up: The above-displayed tweet accurately lists the dates when Trump either golfed or held a political rally in the days after the CDC issued its first alert about the coronavirus. While some of these events took place as the impeachment process was underway (between Dec. 19, 2019 and Feb. 5, 2020), many of these rallies and golf outings took place after the trial was over.', 'What this says about Trump’s state of mind during the early days of the pandemic, however, is unclear. Here’s how Trump responded when he was asked if his impeachment had distracted him from responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.', 'Trump says he would\'ve handled COVID-19 the same even without impeachment: "I don’t think I would have done any better had I not been impeached." pic.twitter.com/pxY1BpsX6H', '— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) April 1, 2020', '', 'Harris, Shane; Miller, Greg; Dawsey, Josh; Nakashima, Ellen. \xa0 “U.S. intelligence reports from January and February warned about a likely pandemic.”\n\xa0 \xa0 The Washington Post. \xa0 20 March 2020.', 'Cabrera, Cristina. \xa0 “Trump: I Wouldn’t Have Handled Coronavirus Any Better Even Without Impeachment.”\n\xa0 \xa0 Talking Points Memo. \xa0 1 April 2020.', 'Conway, George. \xa0 “Blaming Trump’s Virus Failures on Impeachment is Gaslighting of the Highest Order.”\n\xa0 \xa0 The Washington Post. \xa0 31 March 2020.', 'Daly, Matthew. \xa0 “McConnell: Impeachment ‘Diverted Attention’ from Coronavirus.”\n\xa0 \xa0 The Associated Press. \xa0 31 March 2020.', 'Wagtendonk, Anya. \xa0 “The Government is Distributing Emergency Covid-19 Supplies. But Some States Are Losing Out.”\n\xa0 \xa0 Vox \xa0 29 March 2020.', 'MSNBC. \xa0 “Trump’s Coronavirus Response Criticized by Joy Reid.”\n\xa0 \xa0 29 March 2020.', 'Rumors about antifa plotting violence have coincided with the month of July and Gettysburg before.', 'A complete story is rarely told in a headline.', 'Social media rumors that two memorials in New York were vandalized proved misleading.', 'In August 2019, a 23-year-old unarmed Black man died after an encounter with police officers in Aurora, Colorado.', 'A chaotic scene in St. Louis sparked outrage, memes, and confusion.', 'Socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested on sex abuse charges connected to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.', 'The white supremacist group made frequent use of the slogan more recently embraced by President Donald Trump, though they did not, as some claim, invent it.', "The question of past arrests often surfaces among people who want to rationalize police officers' actions when Black men are killed in custody.", 'You can claim anything if you remove the barrier of evidence.', 'Rumors about antifa plotting violence have coincided with the month of July and Gettysburg before.', '© 1995 - 2020 by Snopes Media Group Inc.', 'This material may not be reproduced without permission.', 'Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com']
Did Trump Golf, Hold Rallies After Learning About COVID-19 Threat?