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US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting on May 7, 2020, in the Oval office of the White House in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

US President Donald Trump "lied" about China being behind the coronavirus outbreak and that the deadly flu-like pathogen could have been prevented at its origin from turning into a globally epidemiological crisis as part of failed attempts to take the virus blame at home off himself, says a political analyst.

Richard Becker, a commentator with the ANSWER Coalition from San Francisco, made the remarks during a Thursday edition of Press TV’s The Debate program while commenting on the blame game and tensions between China and the US over the source of the pandemic, which has severely battered the US economy.

Trump has described the coronavirus pandemic as the worst attack ever on his country while pointing the finger at China, saying the outbreak has hit the United States harder than the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor during WW ll or the 9/11 attacks two decades ago, which led the country to wage two deadly wars against Iraq and Afghanistan.

China believes that the US president is trying to divert attention from his poor handling of the coronavirus outbreak in his country in order to back up his presidential bid.

Trump claimed last week that he had seen evidence linking the virus to a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan and threatened new trade tariffs on China. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said there is "enormous evidence" backing the coronavirus-leak scenario.

The World Health Organization, senior US scientists and even the US intelligence community have rejected the claim despite pressure from the White House.

"The reality of course is that Trump discounted the danger [of the coronavirus] for weeks and weeks and weeks even though his top advisors and health advisors kept telling him that this was going to happen," Becker told Press TV on Thursday.

"He is now in danger of losing the election because of that, and so as the primary motivation, I think, right now is targeting China to try to take the blame off himself," he added.

"China has been praised by the World Health Organization and because the WHO praised China’s response, Trump declared he is cutting funding for them. Trump has lied, he’s deceived, he’s done everything to take the blame off himself now that it has turned into a disaster but he has to now find someone else to blame," Becker underlined.

The political commentator went on to say that Trump should have listened to his advisors and not played down the danger of the outbreak.

"If trump had done what his advisors told him to do in January and February and early March, this never would have turned into a disaster that has turned into and to blame china is the propaganda line of the Trump administration," Becker said, adding that Washington "has always blamed somebody else, that’s the problem, never takes responsibility for anything; that’s Trump’s modus operandi and it has always been,"

In February, China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology dismissed rumors that the virus may have been artificially synthesized at one of its laboratories or perhaps escaped from such a facility.

Robert Patillo, a political strategist from Washington DC, was the other panelist invited to The Debate, who blamed China’s "secrecy" for the health crisis.

"I think President Trump is upbraiding based on speculations because of that shroud of secrecy around China," Patillo said.

"When you don’t allow people in to see what the truth [is] then of course you would leave it open to speculations and conspiracy theories. What china should do is work in a collaborative way as they have been fighting the coronavirus longer that anybody else," he added.

The US president, who is seeking re-election in November, has ramped up his anti-China rhetoric in recent weeks. This comes as his attempts to reopen his country’s crisis-ridden economy faces opposition from health officials and many state governors while the coronavirus fatalities in the US continue to soar.

US Democrats have criticized Trump since the epidemic erupted in Wuhan late last year, saying he has failed to develop a comprehensive and effective plan for testing Americans for the coronavirus and tracing contacts of those who are infected by the virus, which has so far infected almost four million people and killed over 271,000 across the world.

More than 3.8 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the US economy slid further into a crisis that is becoming the most devastating since the 1930s.

The economists have forecast that the unemployment rate for April could go as high as 20% - the highest rate since it reached 25% during the Great Depression.

SOURCE: PRESS TV