Chris Wallace fact-checks Trump on U.S. coronavirus mortality rate
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Fox News' Chris Wallace fact-checked President Trump in an interview Sunday after Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. has the lowest coronavirus mortality rate in the world.
Why it matters: Trump has touted the country's mortality rate in his defense of the administration's response to the pandemic, dismissing the fact that the U.S. has the world's highest confirmed case count as simply a product of increased testing.
What happened: After Wallace informed Trump that the U.S. has the seventh-highest mortality rate in the world, the president asked White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany to provide them with statistics.
- McEnany handed Trump a chart from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control that left off countries that have lower rates than the U.S.
- The chart also showed that Brazil and South Korea have lower mortality rates than the U.S., but Trump still accused Wallace of being "fake news."
- The U.S. has a mortality rate of 3.8%, seventh in Johns Hopkins University's list of the 20 countries with the highest mortality rate.
The big picture: Trump tripled down on his claim that the coronavirus will just "disappear" one day, claiming that he's been right about the pandemic "probably more than anybody else."
- Trump denied that his administration has engaged in a campaign to discredit Anthony Fauci, claiming that it was only trade adviser Peter Navarro who had a dispute with him.
- Trump went on to call Fauci "a little bit of an alarmist" and claimed he's been wrong about several things over the course of the pandemic, but insisted that the two have maintained a good relationship.
