Is Donald Trump Criminally Responsible for Coronavirus Deaths?

Deconstructed

The Intercept

News

4.8 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2020

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

Deaths from Covid-19 continued to mount this week as the U.S. surpassed 200,000 confirmed cases, more than any other country in the world. Experts increasingly point to President Trump’s willful negligence as a primary cause of the pandemic’s intensity, but MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner takes things a step further, arguing controversially that Trump could be legally liable for coronavirus deaths after he leaves office. He makes the case to Mehdi Hasan on this week’s podcast.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I actually think he will see charges brought in each jurisdiction in which people have died as a result of his gross negligence.
0:08.0	So I have a feeling that he has got a lot of criminal legal exposure coming at him beginning in January 2021.
0:21.4	Welcome to Deconstructed, I'm Maddie Hussin. Broadcasting once again from home because of the coronavirus, of course.
0:27.8	I hope you're all staying safe and indoors because our lives are literally at stake.
0:32.4	He acted in a grossly negligent way and he failed to act and that failure was a product of gross negligence.
0:41.2	He hit the homicide bananze.
0:43.4	That's my guest today, Glenn Kershner, former federal prosecutor with 30 years of trial experience,
0:49.0	who's upset many on the right with this very provocative suggestion of his that Trump could be prosecuted for negligent homicide.
0:57.4	But aside from triggering the maggot snowflakes, is he right? Could the president really one day be prosecuted?
1:04.0	Put on trial for his role in exacerbating and worsening this deadly crisis.
1:14.0	New projections indicating that without drastic action, the United States could face a catastrophic loss of life from coronavirus,
1:22.5	a death toll topping one million.
1:25.3	President Trump says he's considering putting New York and two other states under quarantine to slow the spread.
1:31.2	The United States is now the epicenter of a global pandemic. Cases of the coronavirus are rising exponentially.
1:38.4	The number of deaths in the United States has now topped 4,000.
1:42.0	That's more than the number of Americans killed on 9-11 on George W. Bush's watch.
1:46.1	And more than the number of Americans killed in Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria in 2017,
1:51.0	which was of course on Donald Trump's watch.
1:53.7	Now let's be clear, President Trump is not responsible for the existence or the deadliness of the coronavirus.
2:00.8	He is however responsible for the catastrophically botched response to the spread of that virus
2:06.8	inside these United States since January.
2:09.9	Many experts believe that the number of deaths we're now seeing and the rapid spread of the disease caused by the coronavirus,
	...

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