Representative Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) gave President Donald Trump high marks regarding his handling of China and the regaining control of the American economy as the nation is grappling with the threat of the coronavirus pandemic.

During an interview that aired on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN on Friday, the Tennessee Republican congressman argued a lesson learned from Mainland China’s handling of the coronavirus was how unstable and unreliable the communist nation is, which should warrant a “different attitude” toward it in the future.

“There’s one guy that was talking about that during his campaign, and that’s President Trump,” he said. “He talked about how unfair China was being in terms of trade, stealing our secrets and all kinds of unfair practices. He took initial steps to work out fair trade agreements and work out different kinds of relationships. And we’ve learned how our global economy depending on China, is unstable at best. They’re not reliable. They’re communists. They don’t have to report. They’re not as accountable as we are in this country. So, I think if nothing else — we’ve learned a great lesson.”

“And you know, the president stepped up early on when the Democratic House was still trying to impeach him and impose travel bans from China that was limiting about 10,000 people from coming into our country a day,” DesJarlais continued. “He got criticized for being a racist for doing that. And then when there started cropping up a few illnesses, they criticized that he wasn’t doing enough. I think the president has been ahead of the curve on this one, and he is trying to reset our relations with China. I think moving forward, we need to have a different attitude about how we do business, and not be so reliant on them in terms of the global economy.”

DesJarlais also gave the Trump administration a vote of confidence in getting the U.S. economy back in order as it has been brought to its knees by the coronavirus outbreak.

“Our economy was in literally the best shape it’s been just a few weeks ago — lowest unemployment, stock market at record levels breaking records every day,” DesJarlais said. “And then here because of their lack of transparency, the whole world is in this pandemic. I’m not saying it wouldn’t happen to some extent, but certainly, it wouldn’t be the numbers and the disruption we’re looking at now. So, everyone needs to reevaluate that relationship. And you know, I think our economy will recover just fine. I think Trump has set in place restructuring our manufacturing base. We have the tax cuts. We should be able to bring some of these pharmaceutical companies back to our country to produce the prescription drugs that we need at better prices. So I think once that we get through this, and I’m positive we will.”

“I’m confident in the job the presidential his team, Vice President Pence have been doing,” he continued. “And I think sooner rather than later, we’ll be on the road to recovery. There is no reason the economy shouldn’t bounce back. Now, a lot of people are hurting now and are going to be hurt. And so, that’s why this stimulus is normally something I would not be for. I certainly opposed Obama’s stimulus. He put a trillion dollars into the economy, and I think to this day we cannot account for more than $200 billion of what he spent. But in this case where the government is mandating shutdowns, telling people to stay home and not go to work, then you can’t do much about that. So, I do think the government has a role in helping in that recovery.”

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