Coronavirus: Trump falsely claims Nancy Pelosi was 'dancing in the streets' of Chinatown

Donald Trump returned to making untrue accusations against Democrat Nancy Pelosi's visit to Chinatown in February as he deflected blame over coronavirus

Donald Trump has again alleged that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Chinatown in February to ‘dance in the streets’ whilst he was at the White House managing the Covid-19 crisis.

Trump claimed on Monday that Pelosi, the top Democratic in the US Congress, wanted to party in the streets of Chinatown, San Francisco, at the beginning of the pandemic.

“Nancy Pelosi was dancing in the streets in Chinatown. She wanted to go - lets go out and party,” said Trump. “But that was late into February so mention that, you could mention that.”

The comments - which are the latest in a series of dishonest Trump attacks on Pelosi’s Chinatown visit - come amid severe criticism of the US president’s actions on coronavirus.

The president has maintained that his administration did ‘many things’ during the month of February to prepare for the coming pandemic, without providing detail.

On April 20, he said: “Nancy Pelosi is holding a street fair. She wants a street fair in San Francisco, in Chinatown. To prove, you know what the purpose of it was: to prove that there is no problem.”

On February 24, Pelosi visited Chinatown in San Francisco to support businesses and the Asian-American community after visitor numbers dropped. She did not ‘party’, ‘dance in the streets’, or ‘hold a street fair’, as president Trump has claimed.

That visit came weeks ahead of a stay-at-home order being announced for San Francisco.

“You should come to Chinatown,” said Pelosi in February. “Precautions have been taken by our city. We know there’s concern about tourism, travelling all throughout the world, but we think it’s very safe to be in Chinatown and hope that others will come.”

Republicans have attempted to compare the Democratic with president Trump, with Florida congressman Matt Gaetz calling Pelosi “the hypocrite of the House” on Fox News last week.

“While Donald Trump was shutting down travel from China, Nancy Pelosi was volunteering as a tour guide in Chinatown, and she said she did so so there wouldn’t be racist attacks and really that's just the Democrat’s resorting to identity politics,” added Gaetz.

The congressman’s comments came days after president Trump claimed on Twitter that "Crazy Nancy Pelosi” had “wanted everyone to pack into Chinatown long after I closed the BORDER TO CHINA.”

Trump added: “Based on her statement, she is responsible for many deaths. She’s an incompetent, third-rate politician!"

Democratic congresswoman Judy Chu, the chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, pointed-out that Chinatown and China were not the same in a tweet.

"We don't have a border with China. Also, the fact that you can't distinguish between China & Chinese AMERICANS puts Asian American lives at risk," said Chu.

Attacks against Asian-Americans were reported across the US at the beginning of the pandemic, and appeared to continue until the US president stopped mislabelling Covid-19 as the ‘Chinese’ or ‘Wuhan’ virus.