NEWSNick Cordero's Widow Amanda Kloots Slams Trump For COVID-19 Remarks: 'No Empathy'
Oct. 7 2020, Published 6:34 p.m. ET
After President Donald Trump downplayed the coronavirus and told Americans not to let it "dominate" their lives, Nick Cordero’s widow, Amanda Kloots, slammed the former reality star for his comments.
"It was like a gut punch, bringing back … everything we went through," the 38-year-old told Chris Cuomo on Tuesday, October 6 — three months after Cordero died at just 41 years old from COVID-19; he battled the disease for 95 days.
"Don’t be afraid? We were afraid every single day," Kloots revealed. "To tell somebody to not be afraid of this disease that took a life, that took over 200,000 lives, that took over a million lives. It’s just like a dagger in the heart.
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"It not only has dominated the lives of the people we’ve lost, it’s dominated the families of those people, it dominated and it still does, the hospital, the health heroes that were working every day to save my husband," she remarked. "It dominated people who’ve lost their jobs and small businesses that have been closed and will not reopen. It’s dominated everything."
Kloots added that the President "owes America an apology."
"He had a chance, since having COVID to ... use the two days that he suffered in the hospital to relate to us, to relate to the world, to relate to the United States of America, and he didn't," she said. "Instead of showing empathy and heart, he showed his bragging nature and how well he's doing."
The 74-year-old businessman and his wife, Melania Trump, tested positive for the novel coronavirus last week, and since then, Trump has continued to explain that the infectious disease is nothing to worry about. To prove his point, Trump did a surprise drive-by in a car with his Secret Service agents on October 4 and even took off his mask on the balcony of the White House.
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"Are we going to close down our country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!" he wrote, comparing COVID to the flu.
"I learned so much about coronavirus. And one thing that’s for certain, don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it," Trump said a video. "You’re going to beat it. We have the best medical equipment. We have the best medicines, all developed recently."
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In response, the fitness trainer took to Instagram to reveal her thoughts on the situation. "To all the over 208,000 Americans who lost loved ones to this virus — I stand by you, with you, holding your hand. Unfortunately it did dominate our lives didn’t it? It dominated Nick’s family’s lives and my family’s lives," she shared.
"I guess we 'let it' — like it was our choice?? Unfortunately not everyone is lucky enough to spend two days in the hospital. I cried next to my husband for 95 days watching what COVID did to the person I love," she continued. "It IS something to be afraid of. After you see the person you love the most die from this disease you would never say what this tweet says. There is no empathy to all the lives lost. He is bragging instead. It is sad. It is hurtful. It is disgraceful."
