Right-wing media figures have contorted into a variety of positions to defend President Donald Trump and his administration’s fumbling of the coronavirus outbreak, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic Wednesday.
Here are eight of the most ridiculous tweets we could find making their way through right-wing Twitter:
Far-right columnist Michelle Malkin felt no pity for Disney when news broke that Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure would close in response to the outbreak: “I am crying no tears for American tech worker-screwing globalist, H-1B-exploiting Disney being forced to close over a foreign virus.”
Conservative Review editor Daniel Horowitz attempted to draw a line between viral diseases and immigration.
“Focal Point” radio show host Bryan Fischer called concern over the coronavirus “utterly irrational panic” and blamed the “Talking Snake Media” for turning the public against Trump.
Right-wing meme creator Carpe Donktum, whose real name is Logan Cook, used racist language to respond to a New York Times article asking if calling the coronavirus a “foreign virus” or “Chinese virus” is racist, saying it wasn’t racist but that he’d call it the “Ching Chong Prague” out of spite.
Following Donktum’s tweet, Sam Parker, a Republican who ran for U.S. Senate in Utah in 2018, arranged a poll for the best name for the virus—by the “best,” we think he meant racist.
Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton alleged that the political left was “protecting Chinese communists” by chiding Republicans for repeatedly calling COVID-19 the “Wuhan” or “Chinese” virus.
Kaitlin Bennett, who rose to fame by posing with a gun in her graduation pictures at Kent State University, insisted that calling COVID-19 the “Chinese” virus was no different than describing food and restaurants as such.
Charlie Kirk warned his followers that the pandemic would be worse with Democrats in charge.
