FLASHBACK: Pelosi Calls on Californians to ‘Come to Chinatown’ Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late last month called on Californians to gather in San Francisco’s Chinatown despite concerns about the spreading coronavirus.

“It’s exciting to be here, especially at this time, to be able to be unified with our community,” she said from the shopping district on Feb. 24. “We want to be vigilant about what is out there in other places. We want to be careful about how we deal with it, but we do want to say to people ‘Come to Chinatown, here we are — we’re, again, careful, safe — and come join us.’”

News footage of Pelosi’s Chinatown tour has surfaced in conservative media following her criticism of President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Pelosi, touring San Fran’s Chinatown Feb. 24: “We do want to say to people, come to Chinatown, here we are … come join us” pic.twitter.com/0FEOq9t4VM

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 29, 2020

In an appearance Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Pelosi suggested Trump was responsible for the mounting U.S. death toll from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

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“The president, his denial at the beginning, was deadly. His delaying of getting equipment to where it — continues his delaying in getting equipment to where it’s needed is deadly,” Pelosi told anchor Jake Tapper. “This is such a tragedy. We don’t even know the magnitude of it because we don’t have adequate testing.”

“As the president fiddles, people are dying,” she added.

What Trump was doing when Pelosi appeared in the Chinatown video

Weeks before Pelosi encouraged people to come out and support local businesses, Trump had already banned travel to the United States from China by foreign nationals. That order came on Jan. 31.

On Feb. 26, just two days after Pelosi addressed her constituents from Chinatown, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story headlined “Get ready now for probable coronavirus pandemic in U.S., federal officials warn.”

On March 19, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order requiring all Californians to stay in their homes and shuttering nonessential businesses. He followed up on Monday with another order expanding the services medical professionals can perform in their jobs.

Roughly three-quarters of Americans in 28 states are now or soon will be under stay-at-home orders. Nearly 165,000 cases have been confirmed across the United States, along with 3,170 related deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University database.

On “Fox & Friends” on Monday, Trump responded to Pelosi’s criticism of him, calling her a ” sick puppy.”

Critics have accused Trump of downplaying the coronavirus outbreak after implementing the travel ban. But he has lately taken a number of steps to

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Andrew Tobin is Pluralist’s Editor-in-chief.

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