AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis «very sad» and «tragic.»
- «I always pray for the president and his family that they’re safe,» she said on Friday.
- The top Democrat also said Trump’s behavior during the pandemic was a «brazen invitation for something like this to happen.»
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she is praying for President Donald Trump after his positive COVID-19 test but called his behavior during the pandemic a «brazen invitation» for the virus.
«This is tragic, it’s very sad,» Pelosi said in an interview on MSNBC on Friday. «But it also is something that, again, going into crowds, unmasked, and all the rest, was sort of a brazen invitation for something like this to happen.»
The top Democrat also expressed that she remains «hopeful that it will be a transition to a saner approach of what this virus is all about.»
Trump has regularly hosted campaign rallies, both indoors and outdoors, against the warnings of public health officials who have cautioned that the events with closely packed crowd sizes and little mask-wearing could be superspreaders of the virus.
Those rallies have now come to a halt as the president is quarantining with First Lady Melania Trump at the White House following their positive diagnosis late Thursday.
Pelosi said the news could serve as a «learning experience» for the rest of the country to heed coronavirus health guidance and take the crisis more seriously. The disease has now taken the lives of more than 205,000 people in the US.
«Maybe this will be the moment where people will say, ‘OK, Masks. Distance. Sanitation. Tracing. Treatment,'» she said.
Out of an abidance of caution, Pelosi said that she took a COVID-19 test and is awaiting the results.
The California Democrat also spoke about the new $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill the House passed on Thursday evening, and that talks were underway with the Trump administration.
«Let’s understand the diagnosis that our country has had at the highest level — and recognize that every life, every diagnosis, is important,» Pelosi said. «Having the treatment is very important. We’re glad the president has it. We want it for everyone. That’s in our bill.»