Daily US Times: Donald Trump, former US President, is being sued by a Chinese American civil rights group over his use of the terms “Wuhan virus”, “China virus” and “Kung Flu virus” during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to court documents (PDF) posted online, the Chinese Americans Civil Rights Coalition, filed the lawsuit against Trump on Thursday.
According to the suit, Trump’s statements during speeches and his postings like ‘China virus’, Wuhan virus’ on social media during the coronavirus pandemic caused Chinese and Asian Americans “emotional distress” and led to an uptick in racially motivated violence against these communities across the US.
“Defendant’s extreme and outrageous conduct indeed has caused members of the Plaintiff organization and to a large extent Asian Americans emotional distress and resulted in an unmistakable rising up trend of racial violence against Chinese Americans and Asian Americans from New York to California.”
One of the highest-profile incidents of violence in the United States against Asian Americans happened on March 17 when a gunman shot eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, in three attacks on massage parlours in and around Atlanta.
A 65-year-old Filipino woman was assaulted while walking to church in New York City on March 29. The assailant kicked her in the stomach, stomped on her and knocked her to the ground.
In a statement to The Hill newspaper, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former Republican president, said: “This is an insane and idiotic lawsuit that is specious at best, and it will be dismissed if it ever sees a courtroom.”
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