‘His lying is killing us': New Lincoln Project ad starkly reveals Trump’s failed coronavirus response

‘A death from Covid is the loneliest death imaginable,’ group claims in new video

A Republican campaign group formed to get Donald Trump out of office, has released a new attack ad that criticises the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, as he continues to play down the seriousness of the virus.

Mr Trump was hospitalised at the Walter Reed Medical Centre on Friday evening, after he showed symptoms for coronavirus following a positive Covid-19 test result a few hours earlier.

After nearly three days at the facility, president Trump tweeted that he would be leaving the medical centre, and arrived back at the White House on Monday evening.

When he announced he was leaving, Mr Trump played down the seriousness of his condition, and wrote: “Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.”

On Tuesday morning, The Lincoln Project, a Republican political action committee that is aiming to prevent the reelection of Mr Trump, released a new attack ad, titled Hospital, following the president’s release from the facility.

The ad starts with a blurry image of someone in a hospital bed, with the noise of a ventilator, a heart rate monitor and muffled speech from medical staff the only sound in the clip.

“A death from Covid is the loneliest death imaginable, no husband or wife,” flashes on the screen. “No son or daughter by your side. No sister or brother. No extended family or lifelong friends,” follows in the clip.

“No one to hold your hand. No one to ease your passing. Just a cold lonely hospital room. For too many this is how it ends today. Over 200,000 Americans have lost their lives to Covid. We could have stopped it.

“His lying is killing us. We have to stop it. Vote him out,” the ad concludes, as the sound of the heart rate monitor increases in speed, before the screen fades to black.

On Tuesday morning, president Trump falsely claimed that 100,000 Americans die every year from the flu, as he continued to play down the seriousness of the virus following his release from hospital.

Mr Trump tweeted: “Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu.

“Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!”

Politico reported that the most deaths from flu in the last 10 years was around 61,000 in 2018, while According to Johns Hopkins University some 7.4m people have now tested positive for coronavirus in the US since March and the death toll has reached 210,195.

Last week, after Mr Trump announced he had tested positive for coronavirus, the campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said it would stop airing attack ads. The Trump campaign said it would not do the same.

In response, The Lincoln Project said it would continue to air attack ads about Mr Trump, but the new video is the first to focus on coronavirus since the president tested positive for the virus.

The Lincoln Project's senior communications adviser Ryan Wiggins told Newsweek on Friday evening that the group’s “ads will stay up.”

He added: “We will continue to prosecute the campaign against a Trump second term and work to defeat the republicans senators who enable him.”