This is CNN breaking news.

Welcome to the lead. I'm Jake Tappard. The death toll in the United States this afternoon now reaching what was once an unthinkable number more than 50,000

people in the United States lost to coronavirus. To put this in perspective at this

hour a month ago, that number was 646 dead.

Health experts caution the actual death toll is assuredly much higher than 50,000.

Exactly two months ago, President Trump tweeted, tweeted quote the coronavirus is very much

under control in the USA. We can clearly now see that was not the case then and it is not the case now amid this horrific death toll.

President Trump meanwhile continues to make bizarre public statements, ones at odds with medical and scientific expertise.

The president last night suggesting that, quote,

injecting disinfectant could be used as a treatment for coronavirus.

In response, the official Twitter account

of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

has now tweeted a warning that Americans

should, quote, follow the instructions

on the product label to ensure safe and effective use.

The company that makes Lysol also felt the need to issue a public statement warning customers

to not consume their products.

The White House Press Secretary and the President's factotums in the right-wing media claimed that

the press was taking President Trump's comments out of context, which we

were not.

And then this afternoon the President made their empty defenses of him even less rooted, in fact,

when he claimed he had been sarcastic and he was posing the questions to journalists

...