'No Right Covid-19 Count': Donald Trump Threw India Under The Bus In First Presidential Debate

Trump's opponent Joe Biden raised questions on US' strategies of handling the pandemic. In response, Trump dragged India's name and accused that the country doesn't give 'straight Covid count'. Trump also blamed India for climate change.

Image(PTI)

US Elections 2020: Speaking on the first presidential debate against Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday, Donald Trump claimed that India was among the countries that do not accurately disclose the number of deaths due to Covid-19. Defending the United States' performance in controlling the pandemic, Donald Trump said India, China, and Russia “did not exactly give a straight count” on deaths due to the novel coronavirus. Also Read|US Presidential Debate 2020: Biden Calls Trump A Liar, Racist As President Says Nothing Smart About Democratic Leader When Biden highlighted that the United States has more than seven million cases and over 200,000 deaths, Trump said: “When you talk about numbers, you don’t know how many people died in China. You don’t know the deaths in Russia or in India… they don’t exactly give you a straight count, just so you understand.” “By closing the country early, we saved thousands of lives… If it was left to you, millions of people would have died. You could have never have done the job we did. You don’t have the blood to do the job,” Trump slammed Biden. With the remark, Donald Trump attempted to once again blame China for the pandemic that has so far claimed over 10 lakh lives across the world with the US suffering the most number of deaths. As Joe Biden talked about how many US families have lost their loved ones due to coronavirus, Donald Trump said it is due to China. Calling Trump “totally irresponsible” on managing Covid-19, Joe Biden said the president is “a fool on this” and said Trump is only worried about masks in the interest of protecting his own health and not others.

Trump blames Indian for polluting air

Trump also brought up India when asked about climate change, throwing the country under the bus along with China and Russia. “China sends up real dirt into the air. Russia does. India does. They all do,” he said, defending the US’s 2017 withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. Trump is of the view that the restrictions under the Paris Accord were unfair to the US and would have resulted in large-scale job loss for the country. This was not the first instance when President Donald Trump blamed India for polluting the air with harmful emissions. In July 2020 too, the President had said that India, China, and Russia “don’t take care of their air”, news agency PTI had reported. “They want us to take care of our air, but China doesn’t take care of its air. In all fairness, India doesn’t take care of its air. Russia doesn’t take care of its air. But we do. Not on my watch, it’s not going to happen — I can tell you that. Because as long as I’m President, we will always put America first. It’s very simple,” President Trump was quoted as saying. The US is currently the worst-affected country in the world with the maximum number of Covid-19 cases, while India stands at number two, according to the Johns Hopkins University. Wednesday’s debate was the first of three scheduled ahead of the US polls. The next will take place on October 15, followed by the third on October 22. The Vice Presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris is slated for October 7.