evidence: During a Feb. 28, 2020, campaign rally in South Carolina, President Donald Trump likened the Democrats' criticism of his administration's response to the new coronavirus outbreak to their efforts to impeach him, saying "this is their new hoax." During the speech he also seemed to downplay the severity of the outbreak, comparing it to the common flu. [...] On the last Friday of February 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in South Carolina and made comments during a speech in which he accused Democrats of "politicizing" the coronavirus outbreak that left many with the impression that he had referred to the virus itself as a "hoax." [...] Likewise, Politico ran a story headlined "Trump rallies his base to treat coronavirus as a ‘hoax.'" And in an article headlined "Trump calls coronavirus Democrats' 'new hoax,'" NBC News correspondent Lauren Egan wrote: "President Donald Trump accused Democrats of 'politicizing' the deadly coronavirus during a campaign rally here on Friday, claiming that the outbreak is 'their new hoax' as he continued to downplay the risk in the U.S."