Former Vice President Al Gore called out President Donald Trump for an “irresponsible, incompetent, and, in many way, disgraceful” response to the coronavirus pandemic, and specifically condemned the many false claims and unproven treatments Trump has touted during his daily White House briefings.

Appearing on All In with Chris Hayes, Gore was scathing in his assessment of Trump, drawing upon his time in the Clinton administration, when the MSNBC host asked him where the country stood at this moment of the crisis.

“Oh boy, Chris, it’s hard to know where to begin,” Gore said. “There’s no more important role for a president than to lead a nation through a crisis, and that means unifying people, and leading not only your political base, but reaching out to others with whom you disagreed, and Donald Trump has made this all about himself.”

Gore then pointed to breaking news, just published on Monday in the Washington Post, that the dire threat posed by the coronavirus was included in the intelligence community’s presidential daily brief more than a dozen times in January and February, while the president was continually downplaying the risk of an outbreak in his public comments.

“He has engaged in a kind of a magical thinking. He’s pushed dangerous and potentially deadly snake oil-type remedies,” Gore went on, alluding to his frequent, highly optimistic recommendations of the unproven drug hydroyxchloroquine as well as the president’s most recent, bizarre moment, where he breezily suggested researchers investigate injecting disinfectant into Covid-19 patients last week, which would be toxic if not fatal.

“He’s lashed out at people who have been asking legitimate questions and who have pleaded with him to try to mobilize the federal government’s resources,” Gore added. “And now luckily, there have been others that have stepped up, governors, Democratic and Republican governors, in many cases, Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, other scientific and medical experts, this has brought a lot of good out in the American people. Gut this is a dangerous time for our country, Chris. This is, you know, when people all around the world are just dropping their jaws in amazement at the things he says, that’s not good for anybody in this country, and we’ve got to get through this in spite of Donald Trump, but it has been an irresponsible, incompetent, and, in many ways, disgraceful performance.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.

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