Amanda Kloots, widow of Broadway actor Nick Cordero — who died of severe complications from Covid-19 — called President Donald Trump’s recent comments regarding the coronavirus “beyond hurtful” to families who have lost loved ones to the pandemic.
Kloots made headlines earlier this year while sharing her husband’s monthslong battle with Covid-19, from his initial emergency room visit in late March to his death in July. The widow and mother used her Instagram platform to criticize Trump for his Monday tweet telling people not to let the deadly virus “dominate” their lives.
“To act like this disease is nothing and you just got right over it,” Kloots said in an Instagram story. “I’m so happy that you did, thank god you did, but guess what? There’s a lot of people that didn’t.”
Trump, 74, announced early Friday that he had tested positive for the virus and was sent to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center later that day as a “precautionary” measure and to receive treatment. The president announced Monday that he was leaving the hospital and returning to the White House after a series of treatments, including receiving supplemental oxygen and steroids.
“Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life,” Trump tweeted Monday. “We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
Kloots posted a screenshot of the tweet to her Instagram page, calling the statement “disgraceful” in the caption. She noted that her late husband spent 95 days in the hospital fighting the disease.“After you see the person you love the most die from this disease you would never say what this tweet says,” Kloots wrote. “There is no empathy to all the lives lost. He is bragging instead.”
The widow also spoke in a series of Instagram videos, where she called the tweet “beyond hurtful.” Kloots questioned why the president chose to brag about himself rather than express empathy for the friends and family of the more than 209,000 Americans who died in the pandemic.
Kloots also said that she understands the danger of the disease and still lives in fear of getting infected. She said she worries about getting as sick as her late husband and leaving the couple’s 1-year-old son Elvis without a mother.
In one of her Instagram stories, Kloots reposted a photo of her son Elvis from her sister with the words “Life was dominated” across the picture. Kloots also posted another photo in her story that appeared to be of her holding her late husband’s hand while he was hospitalized.
“Life was dominated,” Kloots wrote over the photo. “This wasn’t something we just ‘let’ happen. We were all scared. How dare you @realdonaldtrump.”
Kloots also recorded an advertisement for Trump’s presidential opponent, former president Joe Biden, and tagged the Democratic presidential nominee. She said that Biden had her vote and that she prays Biden wins the election.
