Washington Post, mainstream media pans Biden claim Trump could have stopped all coronavirus deaths

The Washington Post and other major news outlets are calling out Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for his claim Thursday night that President Trump could have prevented every death from the coronavirus pandemic, which started in China.

"If the president had done his job … from the beginning, all the people would still be alive," Biden said at a CNN televised town hall event. "All the people — I'm not making this up. Just look at the data."

The Post said in response that Biden is "making this up."

"There is no data to support this, even if the president had moved rapidly in January to deal with the coronavirus and been able to persuade the Chinese leadership to be more forthcoming about the situation," the paper stated.

Nearly 947,000 people worldwide have died as a result of the virus, which started in late 2019 to early 2020. Among those who have died are at least 197,000 in the United States, many of them elderly and/or with pre-existing medical conditions. 

Politico was also critical of Biden's statement, writing that it "vastly overstated what protections could have worked against the virus."