Fox News host Chris Wallace pushes back on senior Trump campaign advisor over COVID-19 death count conspiracy theory promoted by the president

• Fox News host Chris Wallace questioned Corey Lewandowski about the recent accusation from President Donald Trump where he claimed that doctors are inflating COVID-19 deaths to earn additional money.
• "I think we're categorizing sometimes individuals who may have COVID but aren't dying from that and claiming it as a COVID death, which is not accurate," Lewandowski said.
• Wallace said research has shown that the number of COVID-19 deaths may actually be higher than the official count.

Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday questioned Corey Lewandowski about the recent accusation from President Donald Trump where he claimed that doctors are inflating COVID-19 deaths to earn additional money.

On "Fox News Sunday," Lewandowski, a senior advisor for the Trump campaign, refuted against any blowback from the president's statement.

"I haven't seen that evidence but we have seen on multiple occasions instances where people have claimed that they have died from COVID-19 and that wasn't the case," he said. "I think we're categorizing sometimes individuals who may have COVID but aren't dying from that and claiming it as a COVID death, which is not accurate."

Wallace responded to Lewandowski, reminding him of the severity of Trump's claim.

"We're talking specifically about the president claiming that doctors are inflating the number of COVID deaths," Wallace said. "It's a pretty serious thing to say about the nation's doctors."

At an October 30 campaign rally in Michigan, Trump falsely claimed that doctors were excessively labeling deaths as COVID-related and getting "like $2,000 more" for each death.

"You know, our doctors get more money if somebody dies from COVID. You know that, right?" Trump said to the crowd. "When in doubt, choose COVID."

—Cleavon MD (@Cleavon_MD) October 30, 2020

Wallace said that research has shown that the number of COVID-19 deaths may actually be higher than the official count.

"We have enormous respect for doctors who are serving the frontline patients and they do an amazing job by and large," Lewandowski responded.

Last week, American Medical Association President Susan Bailey criticized Trump for his comments.

"The suggestion that doctors — in the midst of a public health crisis — are overcounting COVID-19 patients or lying to line their pockets is a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge," Bailey said in a statement.