Stefanik faces fury after asserting 'better off four years ago' amid COVID crisis

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the Chair of the House Republican Conference, is under fire after saying Americans were better off four years ago, barely months into the start of the coronavirus pandemic then-President Donald Trump botched, as COVID-19 spread across the country.

“As Ronald Reagan famously asked us, ‘Are you better off today than you were four years ago?’ The answer for hard-working Americans across the country is a resounding ‘no,'” Stefanik claimed (video below).

On March 6, 2020, CNN reported: “8 cases of coronavirus confirmed in Colorado,” “Kentucky confirms 1st coronavirus case,” “Son of nursing home resident with coronavirus describes fight to get mother tested,” “California’s Santa Clara County confirms 4 new coronavirus cases,” and, “Cruise passengers not told about coronavirus test results prior to Pence announcement.”

That last article read: “Passengers aboard the Grand Princess cruise off the coast of California learned that 21 people aboard the ship tested positive for the novel coronavirus by watching Vice President Mike Pence’s announcement this afternoon.”

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Some responded to Stefanik’s remarks, reminding her that President Donald Trump tried to keep those cruise ship passengers off land because he didn’t want his COVID statistics to increase.

A CNN report tracked all the times then-President Trump said COVID would disappear that year, including exactly four years ago, March 6, 2020: “I don’t think people are panicking. I said last night — we did an interview on Fox last night, a town hall. I think it was very good. And I said, ‘Calm. You have to be calm.’ It’ll go away.”

By March 6 there was an average of 32 new COVID cases per day. Just one week earlier, on February 29, 2020, the first official COVID-19 death was recorded.

Five days later, on March 11, “After more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries and 4,291 deaths, the WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic,” the CDC reported. Nine days later, on March 15, states began to issue shutdown orders.

On March 31, 2020, “Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Brix announce that between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths in the U.S. are expected— even if social distancing and public health measures are perfectly enacted.”

By the end of 2020, 345,000 people in the U.S. died from COVID, or had COVID as the underlying cause of death, according to a CDC report at Axios.

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The response to Stefanie’s claim from many online was palpable.

“On this day four years ago my husband and I were at a fitting for our wedding suits. In the weeks that followed, our wedding was postponed, the suit company went bankrupt, the stock market tanked and hundreds of thousands of Americans died. So yes, we’re definitely better off,” wrote Democratic strategist Matt McDermott.

“Looked at my 401 k and yes absolutely. Also the president doesn’t target my gay kids for sport and we don’t have bodies piling up in morgues from Covid,” Michigan Advance editor-in-chief Susan J. Demas responded.

“Four years ago (as of next Monday) – the NBA shut down, schools closed, flights were cancelled, N95s out of stock, and refrigerated morgue trucks began to fill New York streets as sirens were heard 24 hours a day for a year. This lying official knows this. And hopes you forgot,” wrote John Bordeaux.

“Four years ago today Donald Trump was explaining that this new virus going around was no big deal because people on Fox News were telling him that a lot of people die from the flu,” wrote Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz.

“Four years ago you couldn’t buy toilet paper while thousands of Americans suffocated to death every day from a preventable disease and then buried in mass graves. Hooray for four years ago,” replied political commentator Bob Cesca, who also shared some images:

Watch below or at this link.