President Trump says coronavirus is 'worse attack than Pearl Harbour'

7 May 2020, 00:12

Donald Trump has described the coronavirus pandemic as the worst attack to ever hit the United States and blamed China for the pandemic.

Mr Trump said the pandemic was worse for the US than the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in World War Two or the 9/11 attacks.

He also spoke out against China over of the virus outbreak.

China has previously stated that it believes the US is using them as a way to distract from its own handling of Covid-19.

Speaking in the Oval Office of the White House, Mr Trump said: "We went through the worst attack we've ever had on our country, this is worst attack we've ever had.

"This is worse than Pearl Harbor, this is worse than the World Trade Center. There's never been an attack like this.

"And it should have never happened. Could've been stopped at the source. Could've been stopped in China. It should've been stopped right at the source. And it wasn't."

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Mr Trump did however state that it was the pandemic that is America's enemy, not China.

"I view the invisible enemy, coronavirus, as a war," he said.

"I don't like how it got here, because it could have been stopped, but no, I view the invisible enemy like a war."

The US death toll has topped 67,000, with nearly 2,000 people dying over the past day.

Earlier on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted that the United States is "not certain" that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan laboratory, despite his previous claims there was "significant evidence" to support the theory.

Trump's senior official said on Wednesday that Beijing "could have prevented deaths of hundreds of thousands of people" by being more transparent.

It comes after he said on Sunday that there is "significant evidence" Covid-19 came from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

However, when pressed on these comments during a news conference, Pompeo admitted that the US government does not have "solid proof" of the theory.

"We don't have certainty," he said."And there is significant evidence that this came from the laboratory.

Those statements can both be true. I've made them both. Administration officials have made them. They're all true."

President Donald Trump has previously been criticised by UK experts for claiming the viral outbreak originated in the lab.