New York Post columnist Miranda Devine claimed on Tuesday afternoon that it is “incredibly selfish of older people” to be “timid and afraid” of the novel coronavirus that has killed more than 210,000 Americans, adding that they are causing “young people to miss out on the most important part of their lives.”
A day after the president bizarrely included her email address in a tweet quoting her most recent pro-Trump column celebrating the “bravery” of his COVID-19 battle, Devine appeared on Fox News to applaud his attempt to portray himself as a hero for surviving the infection.
After airing a portion of the president’s campaign-style video in which a raspy Trump—fresh from Walter Reed Medical Center—downplayed the virus and suggested he’s “maybe immune,” Fox News host Dana Perino asserted that Trump was “sending a message” to Americans that “people want to get back to work and want their kids back in school.”
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Devine agreed before noting that the “three most powerful words” Trump has said about COVID-19 amid this crisis have been: “Don’t be afraid.” After repeating the president’s call to Americans to not allow the virus to “dominate you,” the conservative writer then blamed the nation’s most vulnerable people for the sustained pandemic.
“He’s delivered a message of hope through experience,” she declared. “He sent the message that we can get back to work. That’s what everybody wants.”
Devine added, “I think it’s just incredibly selfish of older people or neurotic people who are timid and afraid and won’t come out of their basements to confine children and young people to miss out on the most important parts of their lives in schooling and on the prime of youth.”
Clearly taken aback, Perino asked Devine to clarify her comments, wondering aloud if the Trump-boosting columnist really, truly meant older and immunocompromised people are merely being selfish and afraid.
“Yes, I do,” Devine affirmed before specifically pointing at Democrats and presidential nominee Joe Biden.
“I think that people in power who insist on keeping the economy shut down,” she said. “Insisting on keeping Americans just as frightened as they were six months ago of the coronavirus which has receded as a threat. I think they are selfish. And I am particularly pointing the finger, if you want to know, at Democrats and Joe Biden.”
“That’s an interesting point of view,” Perino reacted before ending the brief interview during the network’s key “straight news” hours.
Recent polls, meanwhile, show senior voters are fleeing from Trump, largely over his handling of the coronavirus crisis. According to a recent NBC poll, Biden is now leading by 27 points among voters 65 and older, a demographic Trump won by eight points in 2016.
