Reprinted with permission from Alternet

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended President Donald Trump's misleading and false claim that the coronavirus "affects virtually nobody," and insisted that it is "a testament" to Trump that 2 million Americans have not died from COVID-19.

The U.S. just crossed the tragic marker of 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic.

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"As you've heard several doctors in the Task Force note from this podium, we were looking at the prospect of 2 million people potentially perishing from the coronavirus in this country," McEnany told reporters Tuesday, suggesting wrongly that doing absolutely nothing would have been a legitimate course of action Trump could have taken.

She called the more than 200,000 deaths, "a testament to the hard work done by the Task Force and this President."

On Monday at a rally in Ohio Trump told supporters the coronavirus "affects elderly people. Elderly people with heart problems and other problems. If they have other problems, that's what it really affects. That's it."

"You know, in some states, thousands of people, nobody young" dies, Trump added. "Below the age of 18, like, nobody. They have a strong immune system, who knows. You look — take your hat off to the young, because they have a hell of an immune system. But it affects virtually nobody. It's an amazing thing."

McEnany told CNN's Jim Acosta Tuesday afternoon that President Trump was "giving critical information" at Monday night's rally when he said the virus "affects elderly people" and "that's it."