WASHINGTON — President Trump turned Monday’s every day coronavirus activity drive briefing into an aggressive protection of his personal halting re
WASHINGTON — President Trump turned Monday’s every day coronavirus activity drive briefing into an aggressive protection of his personal halting response to the pandemic and used a campaign-style video to denounce criticism that he moved too slowly to restrict the lethal unfold of the virus.
For practically an hour, Mr. Trump vented his frustration after weekend information studies that his personal public well being officers have been ready by late February to advocate aggressive social distancing measures, however that the president didn’t announce them till a number of weeks later — a vital delay that allowed the virus to unfold.
Mr. Trump broadly mischaracterized an article on his response to the coronavirus, revealed Sunday in The New York Occasions, repeatedly insisting that america had only a few instances of the virus in early January — six weeks earlier — and angrily mocking a suggestion that was by no means made: that he ought to have ordered all faculties and companies shut that month.
“I’m supposed to shut down the best financial system within the historical past of the world and we don’t have one case confirmed in america?” he stated, his voice laced with sarcasm.
Mr. Trump started the briefing by inviting Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s main infectious illness professional and a member of the coronavirus activity drive, to the lectern in order that he might “make clear” feedback he made Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” On the information program, he stated that extra lives might have been saved from the coronavirus if the country had been shut down earlier.
With the president towering over him, Dr. Fauci said his answer to a hypothetical question got him “into some difficulty” and insisted that Mr. Trump had approved aggressive social distancing measures as soon as he and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House’s coronavirus coordinator, urged him to do so.
“The first and only time that Dr. Birx and I went in and formally made a recommendation to the president” to put in place strong mitigation measures, Dr. Fauci said, “the president listened to the recommendation and went to the mitigation.”
Mr. Trump — who on Sunday reposted a message on Twitter saying, “Time to #FireFauci” — insisted that he had no plans to take away Dr. Fauci from his workforce and was merely elevating another person’s opinion that he didn’t share.
“I retweeted any individual. I don’t know, they stated, ‘Hearth.’ Doesn’t matter,” Mr. Trump advised reporters.
“I like him, I feel he’s terrific,” the president stated. “Not all people is proud of Anthony, not all people is proud of all people.”
Begun as a daily replace on the virus by Vice President Mike Pence and the nation’s high public well being officers, the every day night briefing has largely been become a prolonged infomercial starring Mr. Trump, who brags about his administration’s efforts, mocks his critics and berates reporters.
However even by these requirements, Monday’s briefing stood out. As an alternative of starting together with his every day recitation of information in regards to the virus response, the president first launched Dr. Fauci after which delivered a ready protection of his actions, and an assault on the information studies about them.
Lashing out at what he referred to as “a pretend newspaper” that writes “pretend tales,” Mr. Trump lowered the lights within the White Home briefing room to play a video displaying numerous Fox Information hosts taking part in down the risk from the virus and governors lauding his actions to assist them cope with the crush of hospitalizations.
The video — which the president stated was produced by a social media workforce in “a interval of lower than two hours” — included video clips of Mr. Trump taking motion to confront the virus, and didn’t embrace any of the numerous cases when the president stated the virus was “beneath management” and would “miraculously disappear” with little effort.
Set to music, the video largely passed over February and early March, when public well being specialists say the administration failed to supply sufficient testing for the virus and didn’t act shortly sufficient to advertise social distancing and forestall its unfold.
At one level within the video, Maggie Haberman, a New York Occasions White Home correspondent, is heard commenting on the president’s determination on Jan. 31 to halt some flights from China in an interview with The Occasions’s podcast “The Day by day.”
“On the finish of the day, it was most likely efficient, as a result of it did truly take a reasonably aggressive measure towards the unfold of the virus,” Ms. Haberman stated within the interview. “The issue is, it was one of many final issues that he did for a number of weeks.”
Within the video, Ms. Haberman’s final sentence was edited out, as was her description of the choice as Mr. Trump’s “mission completed” second.
Ms. Haberman was one in every of six writers of the Occasions article that Mr. Trump stated was “pretend.”
“We’re assured within the accuracy of our reporting, which was primarily based on verified paperwork and quite a few on the report interviews,” stated Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for The Occasions. “The information in our story should not in dispute.”
Earlier than the briefing ended, the Democratic Nationwide Committee issued an announcement saying that the president “commandeered the briefing to run marketing campaign propaganda to sooth his small ego and pathetically attempt to cowl up for his personal failed response.”
Mr. Trump’s presentation was the continuation of a weekend-long effort to rebut criticism of his sluggish preliminary response to the pandemic.
The president tweeted repeatedly on Saturday after The Occasions article was first revealed on-line, and he continued on Sunday, after Dr. Fauci’s interview on “State of the Union,” which angered lots of Mr. Trump’s allies and supporters.
Requested by Jake Tapper, the present’s host, whether or not “lives might have been saved” if social distancing had been began in late February quite than in mid-March, Dr. Fauci stated they may have.
“I imply, clearly, you might logically say that when you had a course of that was ongoing and also you began mitigation earlier, you might have saved lives,” Dr. Fauci stated.
The president’s failure to announce aggressive mitigation efforts till mid-March although high well being officers, together with Dr. Fauci, had concluded a number of weeks earlier that it might quickly be time to embrace such measures is taken into account a vital mistake within the effort to comprise the coronavirus.
However at Monday’s briefing, Dr. Fauci stated his response was taken out of context as affirmation of The Occasions investigation that reported that the president was warned in regards to the potential for a pandemic however that lack of planning led to a halting response.
“As occurs on a regular basis, there have been interpretations of that response to a hypothetical query,” Dr. Fauci stated. “I assumed it might be good for me to make clear as a result of I didn’t have an opportunity to make clear.”
Dr. Fauci bristled when a reporter requested if he was making the clarifying assertion voluntarily, implying that he was put as much as it beneath strain from Mr. Trump.
“The whole lot I do is voluntary, please,” he stated. “Don’t even indicate that.”