Democratic lawmaker threatens ‘serious altercation’ with Trump Jr. over coronavirus remarks

Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) on Friday threatened a “serious altercation” with Donald Trump Jr. after the president’s eldest son said Democrats “seemingly hope” that the coronavirus comes to the U.S. “and kills millions of people so that they can end Donald Trump’s streak of winning.”

“He should not be near me when he says that,” Garamendi said during an interview with MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson.

“Why not?” Jackson asked.

“There would be a serious altercation,” the congressman replied. “That is just totally outrageous. I can assure you that there’s not a Democrat or Republican in Congress that wants anybody to be sick.”

“Don Jr. better not get close to me,” Garamendi added. “It would not be a healthy situation.”

Earlier Friday, Trump Jr. accused Democrats of politicizing the spread of the coronavirus.

“Anything that they can use to try to hurt Trump, they will,” Trump Jr. said. “But for them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump’s streak of winning is a new level of sickness.”