Who shut down the pandemic team?
President Trump: I didn't do it.
WATCH: @Yamiche presses President Trump on the decision to downsize the White House national security staff, eliminating jobs addressing global pandemics.
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 13, 2020
The president calls it "a nasty question" and asserts that "I didn't do it." pic.twitter.com/ENFgvLGlfd
Senator Sherrod Brown (D - Ohio): Yes, you did.
Not true, @realDonaldTrump. I wrote to you more than 600 days ago demanding answers after you fired the entire White House pandemic team. https://t.co/ICbHOkyeyY pic.twitter.com/71OF9gKA3N
— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) March 13, 2020
One of a number of quotes that could be used here:
Trump tweet from November 8, 2013. pic.twitter.com/vL8andHXtf
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 13, 2020
Trump tells us that the U.S. will soon begin a testing program
A comparison:
The US and S. Korea announced their first cases of the coronavirus on the same day:
— Heidi Przybyla (@HeidiNBC) March 13, 2020
January 20
👇👇 https://t.co/d7WMdtvD0U
We are going to wait on Walmart, CVS, Target, Walgreens and the Trump administration which leads to the next question:
When?
Here is an analysis from Talking Points Memo.
President Trump’s Rose Garden press conference was a self-congratulatory, glad-handing celebration of what Vice President Mike Pence called a “historic public-private partnership” to roll out nationwide testing for COVID-19 starting . . . wait, when exactly?
That’s the question after the national TV broadcast where the President, top government officials and business leaders extolled the virtues of the new program but failed to offer a specific timeframe for when mass testing for the novel coronavirus can begin.
After analysis, TPM's conclusion: "It's not clear."
Another comparison
This time it is with one of those countries that Trump would likely call a "shithole country":
Washington Post’s West Africa bureau chief 👇🏼
— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) March 12, 2020
Senegal is testing people and giving results within 4 hours.
Senegal’s per capita income is less than $3,000. https://t.co/s0BGBEVyoH
3/14 Update - Here's Trump in 2018 admitting that he cut the pandemic team
If you wanna know what @Yamiche was asking about, here's Trump ADMITTING to cutting the Pandemic Response Team in 2018. #NastyQuestion pic.twitter.com/TVdoXiutoA
— Jeffrey Lieber (@JeffLieber) March 13, 2020
