Three months after Broadway star Nick Cordero died at the age of 41 after a 95-day battle with the coronavirus, his widow, Amanda Kloots, is calling out President Donald Trump‘s response to his own COVID-19 diagnosis as “hurtful” and a “slap in the face.” After testing positive for the virus last week and spending two days being tended to with experimental treatments at Walter Reed Military Medical Center, Trump returned to the White House Monday amid myriad questions about his health, but urged people on Twitter, “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.”
Kloots took to Instagram Monday to share her shock and horror at the message being sent by the president amid a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans. “I’m honestly not a very political person, but this is really kind of hard to ignore,” Kloots began. “I’m sitting here in my house and I’m honestly frozen. I can’t even move. I couldn’t believe what I read.”
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She continued, “Not everyone’s lucky enough to walk out of the hospital after two days. So we saw what this disease can do, so guess what, we are afraid, we are. I still am. I think about if I got it, if I got as sick as Nick, little [1-year-old son Elvis], he doesn’t have his mom anymore. So I’m afraid.”
Kloots then took on the president’s encouragement not to let the global pandemic “dominate” their lives. “Let it dominate your life? No one’s letting it. Nick didn’t let it. It wasn’t a choice,” she said, fighting back tears on her Instagram. “It dominated his life, it dominated my life, it dominated our family’s lives for 95 days and because he didn’t make it, it will forever affect my life. Even if he would have survived it would have forever affected and changed our lives.”
The mother of one concluded with a condemnation of the president’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic both in his own life and when it comes to the American people. “It’s beyond hurtful. Have some empathy. Why are you bragging?” she said. “Have empathy to the Americans. You are our leader. Have some empathy to the people who are suffering and grieving. It’s just not fair. To act like this disease is nothing and you got right over it. I’m so happy that you did. Thank god you did. But guess what, there are a lot of people that didn’t.”
She then endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, writing, “@JoeBiden you have my vote and by god I hope and pray you win this election.” Doubling down on Instagram later, Kloots added, “I cried next to my husband for 95 days watching what COVID did to the person I love. It IS something to be afraid of. After you see the person you love the most die from this disease you would never say what this tweet says. There is no empathy to all the lives lost. He is bragging instead. It is sad. It is hurtful. It is disgraceful.”
