President Trump told the crowd at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday that he asked officials to "slow the testing down" for the novel coronavirus.
Details: This is the first time Trump has made such remarks, and the campaign for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden issued a statement calling Trump's comments "outrageous" and "appalling." White House officials told reporters that Trump was joking, Axios' Hans Nichols notes.
What he's saying: At the rally, Trump reiterated his claims that ramped up testing was to blame for the U.S. having the world's highest number of COVID-19 cases, and he again blamed China for the pandemic — which he continued to refer to using terms the World Health Organization has said could stigmatize individuals with Chinese ancestry.
- He also referred to COVID-19 as "kung flu," a term White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has previously called "highly offensive."
- Trump said the virus was a "double-edged sword" because it counts cases like a "young man, 10 years old" who "got the sniffles, he's gonna recover in about 15 minutes."
Of note: NIAID director Anthony Fauci told the Wall Street Journal this week that increased testing does lead to more cases reported, but he said higher percentages of positive tests results in many states "cannot be explained by increased testing."
The big picture: More than 119,600 Americans have died of COVID-19, Johns Hopkins data shows. Over 2.2. million people have tested positive for the virus from more than 26.5 million tests in the United States.
Go deeper: In photos: Trump holds first campaign rally since start of coronavirus pandemic
Editor's note: This article has been updated with the Biden campaign's comments.
