New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
CT widow faults Trump stance on COVID-19
Katie Coelho says president is using his case of virus as ‘political propaganda’
BETHEL — The widow of a 32-year-old Stamford courthouse probation officer who died of complications from COVID-19, said President Donald Trump is using his own case of the illness as “political propaganda to divide the nation that was already so broken.”
Katie Coelho’s husband, Jonathan, died April 22 after a 28-day battle in the hospital and 20 days on a ventilator.
Before Jonathan Coelho died, he left a note on his phone expressing his love for his wife and their two children, who live in Bethel.
Katie Coelho who appeared on Anderson Cooper’s CNN show Monday night, said Trump “could have done so much good with coming out and saying COVID is scary and I'm sorry to all of these families, but we're gonna get through this as a nation and as a country.”
Trump staged a dramatic return to the White House Monday night after leaving the military hospital where he was receiving an unprecedented level of care for COVID-19. Landing at the White House on Marine One, Trump gingerly climbed the South Portico steps, removed his mask and, with apparent breathing difficulty, declared, “I feel good.”
Trump said despite his illness, the nation should not fear the virus that has killed more than 210,000 Americans — and then he entered the White House without a protective mask.
When Trump announced he had tested positive last week for COVID-19, Katie Coelho said, “I thought this is going to be really bad for all of the victims’ families because of his inability to be empathetic or to feel anything for anyone else.
“I knew if he got COVID that he was definitely going to downplay it even more so than he has been and he was going to allow the gates to open where people can continue to lash out at us and continue to say horrible things to us.
“The video that he just tweeted and the things that he's been saying are just
disrespectful. We deserve better, my husband deserved better, 210,000 people (who died from COVID) deserved better.”
Cooper asked whether people have said horrible things to her.
“Oh, absolutely — disgusting things,” Coelho said. “I am surprised if I go at least a week without somebody saying something horrible. I've been called almost every swear word in the book, saying that I'm part of the propaganda and I'm left wing and I'm this and that. I'm not.
“My feeling is if that's what people want to say about me then at least I’m challenging them. I'm giving a face and a voice to people like my husband who deserved to have a voice and to be here.
“For President Trump to sit there and say that he's a leader and he's leading us through COVID. What does he have to lose by showing sympathy? What does he have to lose by saying, ‘I'm sorry this happened to your kids; dad and your husband?’
“What does he have to lose?
“He doesn't have anything and he is just pushing through and nobody is looking at him thinking that he is strong and brave; he’s weak because my husband fought COVID, my husband wanted to come home and he deserved it.”
Katie Coelho first appeared on Cooper’s show in the days after her husband’s death, bringing the CNN host to tears as she described the note her husband left for his family.
In the note, Jonathan Coelho wrote: “I love you guys with all my heart and you’ve given me the best life I could have ever asked for, I am so lucky it makes me so proud to be your husband and the father to Braedyn and Penny.
“Katie you are the most beautiful caring nurturing person I’ve ever met ... you are truly one of a kind ... make sure you live life with happiness and that same passion that made me fall in love with you.”