Washington (CNN) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday criticized President Donald Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying "his denial at the beginning was deadly" and that as he "fiddles, people are dying."

"We should be taking every precaution. What the President, his denial at the beginning was deadly," Pelosi said in an exclusive interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

As US cases surge, Pelosi questioned when Trump was informed about the coronavirus and his knowledge on its potential impact. "I don't know what the scientists said to him, when did this President know about this, and what did he know? What did he know and when did he know it? That's for an after-action review. But as the President fiddles, people are dying. And we just have to take every precaution."

Asked by Tapper if she believes Trump's downplaying of the crisis has cost American lives, Pelosi responded, "Yes, I am. I'm saying that."

"Because when he made the other day when he was signing the bill, he said just think 20 days ago everything was great. No, everything wasn't great," she said. "We had nearly 500 cases and 17 deaths already. And in that 20 days because we weren't prepared, we now have 2,000 deaths and 100,000 cases."