Pelosi attacks Trump over coronavirus, Russia hostility: 'The president himself is a hoax'

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., attempted to turn one of President Trump's favorite attack lines back on him Thursday, claiming that "the president himself is a hoax" rather than the coronavirus or Russian interference in U.S. elections.

"MSNBC Live" anchor Stephanie Ruhle had asked Pelosi about Trump's claim that The New York Times was promoting a "hoax" by publishing a story claiming he had been briefed about intelligence that Russia had placed bounties on the lives of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

"He'll say, 'This is a hoax,' and it's a hoax that they are 24/7 trying to disrupt our election as they did in 2016," Pelosi answered. "He says that coronavirus is a hoax. The fact is the president himself is a hoax."

"The Russia Bounty story is just another made up by Fake News tale that is told only to damage me and the Republican Party," Trump tweeted Wednesday. "The secret source probably does not even exist, just like the story itself. If the discredited @nytimes has a source, reveal it. Just another HOAX!"

GANG OF EIGHT BRIEFED BY INTELLIGENCE CHIEFS ON RUSSIA BOUNTY ALLEGATIONS

On Thursday, Pelosi joined a group of other top lawmakers, known as the "Gang of Eight," to be briefed by top intelligence officials on the matter.

Trump repeatedly described allegations that his campaign conspired with Russian officials to interfere in the 2016 election as a hoax. In March of ths year, the Trump campaign sent cease and desist letters to local news outlets on Wednesday threatening legal action if they refused to stop airing a Democratic super PAC's ad suggesting the president called the coronavirus a "hoax."

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Priorities USA, led by a former adviser to Hillary Clinton, released the ad as part of a $6 million effort to attack Trump's response to the pandemic. Titled "Exponential Threat," it followed other ads in splicing together Trump's statements to make it appear as though he said: "The coronavirus, this is their new hoax."

According to The Washington Post, Trump never made that exact statement but it was included in another ad released by former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign. The Post also determined that Trump wasn't calling the virus itself a hoax. PUSA recently joined a Wisconsin station in a lawsuit brought by the Trump campaign over the ad's phrasing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.