MILWAUKEE — Democrats continue to go after President Trump for comments he made about downplaying the coronavirus earlier this year with veteran Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.
"I mean lie after lie, has cost lives," said former Secretary of State John Kerry in an interview with TMJ4's Charles Benson.
Kerry was referring to recorded conversations between President Trump and Woodward for his new book Rage.
In February, President Trump tells Woodward, "This is deadly stuff." A month later later, Trump tells Woodward, "I still like playing it down. I don't want to create a panic."
"More lives lost over three months, more than three times the number of people who died in the Vietnam War have died in the United States because the president didn't level with the American people," said Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran."That's his job, and I think the American people ought to hold him accountable for this."
The number of Covid-19 deaths is now approaching 200,000 in the United States.
President Trump on Thursday told reporters, "I didn't lie" to the American public about the severity of coronavirus.
"What I said is we have to be calm. We can't be panicked," Trump said.
In the most recent Marquette Law School Poll, 56% of registered voters disapprove of President Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Kerry says former Vice President Joe Biden recognized early on the need for a national plan to address the pandemic, not a state-by-state approach.
"The need to prepare , the need to socially distance, all of these things," said Kerry. "The need to trace, to test, we're still not testing in America at the level we ought to be. Joe Biden laid it out."
Kerry knows a thing or two about running a campaign in Wisconsin. The former Democratic presidential candidate won Wisconsin in 2004 but lost the White House to President George W Bush.
On lighter a note, Kerry talked about memories from the massive Madison rally he had in the closing days of the campaign, thanks to one very cool, legendary rock star.
"I remember that day very, very, fondly," said Kerry, "because it's not often you get introduced by the Boss, by Bruce Springsteen."
Tens of thousand of people packed West Washington Avenue on a spectacular Fall day for the Boss and John Kerry.
"I will never forget standing on the street looking up the hill and the Capitol," said Kerry. "There was all these frat houses and other houses, the music and the energy of that day was just really super exciting, unforgettable."
You can watch Charles Benson's entire interview with John Kerry - including his thoughts on Russia interfering with the 2020 Election, right here.
