Dupage Policy Journal

Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) spent several days in March praising China for its response to the spread of the novel coronavirus on Twitter and in tele-town hall events. Yet as far back as Feb. 1, mainstream media outlets have pointed out major flaws in China’s response.

In a March 21 tele-town hall, in response to a constituent’s questions about where the virus came from and why China didn’t do anything sooner, Casten said, according to a video available from America Rising: “Viruses don’t know borders. China, to their credit, once they realized they had a problem, shut down the entire province that this was in, and they seem to have largely isolated the cases in China.”

He added that the United States did not do enough to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“What we have to do as public health officials is try to watch these things and quarantine as quickly as we can," Casten said. "China, to their credit, once they realized they had a problem, shut down the entire province that this was in, and they seem to have largely isolated the cases in China. 

“We have missed that window in the United States. We simply didn’t catch it and shut down the regions quick enough. Other countries also didn’t act quickly enough, we weren’t alone in that. But this is now a global pandemic and what happened to how we got here is no longer irrelevant.”    

The problem with Casten's statements is that the Washington Post and Axios have reported that there were cover-ups, missteps and inaction that could have reduced China’s cases of COVID-19 by 95 percent.

Even before that, Casten attacked the Republican Party and President Trump in a series of tweets, saying they would get people killed.

“Every elected @GOP official owns this moment," Casten tweeted March 11. "They elected him. They coddled him. They cowered before him. They refused to have witnesses at his [impeachment] trial. Given the opportunity to stand up, they sat down.  How much must he break before they put our country first?” 

He followed up with this statement on March 22: “Let us be very clear. Every politician who has stood up for Trump, amplified his MAGA BS, given him the latitude to destroy, sat down when the times asked him to stand…  We need to have a serious conversation about the consequences of having a president who lies all the time. 

"People have and will continue to die because of this. Everyone- politicians, the media, people with a share button on Facebook have to step up, and fast.”

On March 22, Casten called Trump medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci exceptional,  but noted he was “under tremendous pressure not to contradict Dear Leader.”