Trump Defends 'Mortal Sin' of Golfing Amid Pandemic

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump on Monday railed against media coverage of his recent golf outing amid the COVID-19 outbreak, arguing that he had gone golfless for almost three months.

"Some stories about the fact that in order to get outside and perhaps, even a little exercise, I played golf over the weekend. The Fake & Totally Corrupt News makes it sound like a mortal sin", Trump tweeted.

​Major US publications did stories on Trump's trip to his golf course in Virginia as the country's death toll from the virus approached 100,000.

​Trump went on to criticise Joe Biden, his Democratic rival in the upcoming presidential election, for his "work ethic". Biden released a new campaign ad on Saturday slamming the president for playing golf while the US death toll kept rising.

The United States' overall deaths are nearing 100,000, with more than 1.6 million having caught the virus since the start of the outbreak, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University.