Coronavirus in America: Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon rips into President Donald Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic

Speaking at her press briefing, Ms Sturgeon condemned the outgoing President’s record on suppressing the virus, calling it “one of many reasons why the sooner we get to inauguration day… the better.”

Yesterday, the US recorded more than 250,000 new cases of Covid-19 in the preceding 24 hours, as the rate of infections continues to accelerate.

Since March, there have been more than 21 million cases in the US, with 361,000 deaths.

Yesterday, nearly 4,000 Americans died from the virus.

“One of the things that I always think about is the fact that the virus is spreading very rapidly in the United States and there doesn’t appear to be much of a focus at all from Donald Trump on the actions that are taken to suppress it,” Ms Sturgeon charged.

“So that is perhaps one of many reasons why the sooner we get to inauguration day for President Elect Biden, the better.

The First Minister refused to be drawn further on the subject, but added: “I’ll leave it there at this briefing in terms of my comments on the soon-to-be-former President of the United States.”

Yesterday, violent pro-Trump protesters over-ran police stationed outside the Capitol building during a joint session of Congress, where elected officials were set to confirm Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

Mr Biden described the event as “an assault on the Citadel of Liberty” and called on President Trump to “step up”.

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