Hakeem Jeffries faults Trump for spike in Asian harassment

House Democrats slammed President Trump’s past remarks dubbing the disease crippling the nation as the “Chinese Coronavirus,” warning its the kind of remark that’s increasingly putting Asian Americans at risk of racial harassment.

Leaders from the Congressional Asian Pacific American, Black and Hispanic caucuses said the president has the responsibility to do more to push back on this kind of rhetoric, in light of the comments he walked back last week.

“We’ve seen the consequences of his hateful words, cause grave damage and injury to Americans of different types throughout his tenure,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries said. “It’s our hope certainly that he will cut it out, that he will recognize that he’s undermining the ability of the American people to successfully fight this pandemic by recklessly using language that stereotypes in an evidence-free fashion.”

CAPAC Chair Rep. Judy Chu, California Democrat, recounted several stories she’s heard of Asian Americans facing discrimination ranging from “dirty looks and insults” to physical violence. She said one boy in Los Angeles was sent to the hospital after being accused of having the coronavirus.

“The rise of anti-Asian coronavirus xenophobia and discrimination has been alarming and overwhelming,” she said. “In the last month, it’s escalated to spitting yelling and physical attacks against Asian Americans, and this is happening all around the country.”

She said that the CAPAC’s harassment reporting sites have been getting about 100 reports of hate crimes per day and have over 1,000 reports across 31 states in the last five weeks.

Mr. Trump decided to stop using the phrase last week, though he said he didn’t regret it.

“So I think, look, everyone knows it came out of China, but I decided we shouldn’t make any more of a big deal out of it. I think I’ve made a big deal,” he said at a Fox News townhall.

World Health Organization officials warned against using polarizing language regarding the virus because it could lead to racial profiling.

Despite their frustration, Democrats are hoping to get GOP support on a resolution, introduced by New York Democrat Rep. Grace Meng, that will denounce all forms of anti-Asian harassment related to the coronavirus outbreak.

“I’ve often thought of discriminatory actions and rhetoric as sort of part of our American history — something that was in the past and not something that affected us today, whether we’re talking about Japanese internment camps or the Chinese Exclusion Act,” Ms. Meng said. “But as we’ve seen today at what people were saying and doing against fellow Americans, there is a lot of fear in our communities.”

Currently, the measure has more than 100 cosponsors — though they’re only Democrats.

There is no timeline yet for a vote on Ms. Meng’s resolution, given that the House is out of session until at least April 20th to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus amongst lawmakers.