Jane Fonda calls coronavirus ‘God’s gift to the left’

Actress and progressive activist Jane Fonda said in a video posted Tuesday that the coronavirus is “God’s gift to the left,” arguing the pandemic has revealed President Trump’s true character.

“I just think COVID is God’s gift to the left,” the Academy Award winner said, laughing after she made the remark. “That’s a terrible thing to say. I think it was a very difficult thing to send down to us, but it has ripped the Band-Aid off who he [Trump] is and what he stands for and what is being done to average people and working people in this country.”

“We can see it now, people who couldn’t see it before, you know, they see it now and we have a chance to harness that anger and make a difference,” Fonda added.

Trump, who was recently diagnosed with COVID-19, has come under intense scrutiny for his administration’s response to the coronavirus, a disease that has claimed the lives of about 210,000 people in the U.S. while infecting more than 7 million in the country.

Fonda has criticized Trump before. In a June interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, using the same Band-Aid metaphor when discussing racism in America.

“When Donald Trump was elected, and the Band-Aid was torn off, people could see very blatantly the racism in this country that’s always been there,” she said.

Fonda, 81, has long been involved in political activism, dating back to her opposition to the Vietnam War.