Howard Stern: Trump’s COVID-19 handling is ‘treasonous’

Brian Niemietz

Shock jock Howard Stern notched up his war of words on President Trump — a former regular on his show — by accusing the lame duck leader of criminal behavior against his country.

The charge came Monday when a man identifying himself as a doctor in Cleveland, Ohio called Stern’s radio show to describe the “hell” he was experiencing because patients flooding hospitals remain ignorant, or even skeptical, about the dangers of COVID-19. That caller also worried that health care workers, the first line of defense, are being taken out of the fight either by infection or exhaustion.

Stern blasted the president for focusing his energy on trying to overturn the election he lost last month rather than addressing the spreading pandemic that has killed more than 280,000 Americans this year and is getting worse.

Howard Stern doesn’t want to hear from 'stupid’ friends who support Trump

“This is treasonous, what’s going on right now, telling people to run around, go to rallies...” Stern said, before his sidekick Robyn Quivers, a former nurse, pulled him back a bit.

“Well it may not be treasonous, but it certainly is criminal,” Quivers interrupted.

“Well...” Stern agreed. “It certainly is.”

When Stern’s Monday show ended at 11 a.m., the president had tweeted twice about losing the election, which he claims without evidence was rigged. He had not addressed the pandemic. Other than mentioning Sunday night that his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had tested positive for COVID-19, the president has largely ignored COVID-19 on his busy Twitter feed. Giuliani is leading Trump’s efforts to keep the president in office.

Trump was in Georgia over the weekend hosting a crowded rally of largely mask-less followers where he continued promoting seemingly baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud while encouraging Georgians to vote for Republican candidates on the ballot in that state’s senatorial elections.

“You’ve got a guy in charge who doesn’t know about hard work,” Stern said. “Let’s face it.”

Stern’s caller agreed the president “has no clue,” which prompted the 66-year-old radio icon to wonder how long medical workers can withstand the onslaught they’re seeing. “The doctors are going to start saying to themselves ‘If the president doesn’t care and the government doesn’t care, what the f--k am I going to be doing?’”

Donald Trump is the virus: His coronavirus response confirms how toxic he is for the country Stern, who says he’s contemplating retirement when his contract expires at the end of the month, marveled over the fact the president isn’t telling his devotees to protect others by wearings masks.

“I’ve never seen a country more poorly run than this one,” he said. “It’s a disgrace.”

Stern said that as a kid, he and his mother would see footage of American soldiers dying in Vietnam on the news, which promoted his mom to insist her son would never fight in that war. He told his caller that it’d be a good idea to have news cameras in intensive care units.

“They should follow you with a camera every night on the news, watching people die of COVID, watch them choking...” Stern said. “I wish they’d show that on the news.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/howard-stern-trump-s-covid-19-handling-is-treasonous/ar-BB1bI5lG?ocid=msedgdhp