But Miller did not retract this claim, arguing that he would not “go into the billing aspects that have been much reported,” and refused to provide specific evidence, but referred to “independent, unnamed things that indicate this” and returned to his talking points.
At a rally in Michigan on Friday, the president told the attendees that “our doctors get more money if someone dies of Covid,” and so on, “when in doubt, choose Covid.”
He continued, saying, “Our doctors are smart people, so what they do is say,” I’m sorry, but, as you know, everyone dies of Covid, “stressing that every death from the Coronavirus deserves” like another 2,000 dollars “without providing evidence for his claim. .
The comment drew quick reaction from Democratic candidate Joe Biden, as well as various medical groups.
On Friday, the president of the American Medical Association condemned the attacks on health care workers’ motivations during the pandemic as “pernicious, disgraceful and misleading,” without mentioning Trump by name.
Scott GottliebFormer Trump Food and Drug Administration commissioner dropped the idea that doctors were taking advantage of coronavirus patients in an interview on CBS titled “Confronting the Nation.”
He pointed out that “the CARES Act, signed by the president, provides for additional funds, about 20 percent more money for the Covid pneumonia case compared to the normal pneumonia cases.” “The reason is that caring for these patients in hospitals is more expensive. Hospitals are bleeding money. That was a way to try to get more resources. But you have to have Covid and you have to have pneumonia that needs to be documented.”
But he added, “Any doctor who documents Covid pneumonia in the event that the patient does not have pneumonia is scam. Also,” [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] Measures have been implemented to try to encourage hospitals to conduct more testing inside the hospital. So the test that doctors do in hospitals is because the government encouraged them to do that test. But the only extra money is if you are – if you have pneumonia and you have COVID-19. “
Trump’s comment came on the same day the United States set a new record for daily coronavirus cases, with more than 99,000 new cases reported. Across the country, more than a dozen states are seeing record levels of hospitalization, and deaths are starting to rise.
Biden Trump tore For his proposal on Friday he asks the president to “do his job” rather than attacking medical professionals.
Former President Barack Obama slammed the assurances while campaigning for Biden in Detroit on Saturday, arguing that they revealed Trump’s personality.
Obama said, “He can’t understand it. He doesn’t understand the idea that someone would risk their life to save others without trying to make money.”
Given the opportunity to clarify his position on Sunday, Miller only repeated his vague claim that there had been “a number of reports that raised issues with billing and things like that.”
Biden’s campaign advisor, Anita Dunn, drew Miller’s comments in an interview with This Week, saying at the start of her interview, “I am amazed that Jason Miller spent as long as he did without ever saying that the doctors who are on the frontlines of this coronavirus are … What this country is facing, without ever defending it, without saying no, they are not in this country for the money. “
“It tells you everything you need to know about the difference between the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign, and between Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” she said.
Throughout the pandemic, which has infected more than 9 million Americans and killed more than 230,000, Trump allies have repeatedly sought to downplay the grim reality of the virus, and published allegations earlier this year that hospitals incorrectly attributed deaths to the Coronavirus in an attempt to inflate the statistics. .
In an interview with “Fox News Sunday”, the former Trump campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said that he had not seen evidence that Trump had accused doctors of profiting from the virus, but had expressed the same skepticism about the death toll, which was confirmed by the increase in what experts call “excessive deaths.” ” in the United States
“We’ve seen on many occasions where people claim they died from Covid-19 and that wasn’t the case,” he said. “We saw Fox News actually revealing someone who had a motorcycle accident – he might have had a covid but died in a head-on collision. Fox News revealed this whole hypocrisy, so look, I think we sometimes classify individuals who may have had Covid who are They die from it and claim it’s Covid death, which is imprecise. “
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