Chris Hayes Names ‘Canary In Coal Mine' That Foretold Trump's Callous Pandemic Response
President Donald Trump’s widely criticized handling of the relief effort after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017 was “the canary in the coal mine” foretelling how he would respond to the coronavirus pandemic, Chris Hayes said Thursday.
“Even before the pandemic, there were moments in the presidency of Trump where all of it — the self-serving incompetence, the utter lack of empathy, the disregard of human life, all of it — was laid bare,” noted the host of MSNBC’s “All In.”
Trump lashed out at the Puerto Rican people “because the disaster made him look bad” and relentlessly downplayed the death toll, Hayes pointed out.
The president has used similar tactics during the coronavirus crisis, which has killed more than 130,000 people in the United States.
“That was the canary in the coal mine, a wake-up call that showed the true nature of this man, of this administration, what would happen if another natural disaster were to strike,” said Hayes.
It foreshadowed Trump’s “callous and incompetent response to the coronavirus crisis,” he added.
Check out Hayes’ monologue above.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.