The ongoing efforts of the Trump administration to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in the country have been criticized by Sean Penn, American actor and founder of an organization called Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) which, as The Hill points out, "has partnered with community groups and local governments to administer over a million COVID-19 tests".
During an interview with CNN host Ana Cabrera, when she mentioned "coronavirus testing czar" Admiral Brett Giroir saying that the administration is doing "everything that we can do" to increase testing capacity in the country, and asked Penn if he has any advice to give "about improvements that need to be made", the latter had some rather unpleasant things to say.
"I don't have faith in giving advice to the White House testing czar or to the President of the United States. The former is a flat-out liar and an incompetent pawn," Penn simply said. "I'm telling you this not as a Democrat or a lefty. I'm telling you this as somebody who sees it every day".
He also insisted that the United States is capable of "testing all of its citizens twice a week", stressing the importance of testing, notification and a contact tracing period to occur in five days, as otherwise it becomes "useless".
Quite a few social media users, however, seemed more focused on Penn's appearance than on what he had to say, with some dropping joking references to his previous works.