If you want a perfect illustration of how the Trump administration can never be trusted, here it is:
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro publicly said Americans had “nothing to worry about” while he privately warned the White House that the coronavirus pandemic could cost trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of American lives.Navarro circulated two memos at the White House in late January and February warning that a full-blown coronavirus outbreak would leave American lives and the economy vulnerable.
But Navarro, a frequent surrogate for President Donald Trump and his administration on television, continued to present a far more optimistic message in public, CNN’s KFile found after reviewing Navarro’s interviews, statements and writings.In the January 29 memo, Navarro wrote that the “increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic” could infect as many as 100 million Americans and kill “as many as 1-2 million souls.” That same day — in which the coronavirus task force was also formed — Navarro made no mention of the possibility when asked a question about the impact of the coronavirus while appearing on CNBC promoting the USMCA trade agreement.
“Not to jump too quickly to the impact of the coronavirus, but obviously there’s the fear that it’s going to unwind some of the potential benefits of phase one,” CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla said. “(Secretary of Agriculture) Sonny Perdue today said he didn’t know whether it would affect ag commitments. How much are you worried about that unwind or potential unwind?””Well, we have a really strong leadership with (Health and Human Services) Secretary (Alex) Azar and the CDC. We’re working very carefully and diligently on this, so, well, let’s see how this unfolds. This is not my lane per se, so I’m going to let others come on CNBC and inform that,” Navarro said.
But in the memo, Navarro had privately urged the White House to impose a travel ban on China. The White House imposed restrictions on — but did not ban — travel from mainland China on January 31, two days after the memo circulated.In a statement to CNN regarding his CNBC appearance, Navarro said, “A question about agricultural purchase commitments is clearly not my lane.”At the White House coronavirus briefing Tuesday, Trump said he didn’t know about Navarro’s memos until a few days ago and still hadn’t read it.”He wrote a memo and he was right and I haven’t seen the memo,” the President said. “I will see it later on, after this. But it didn’t matter whether I saw or not, because I acted on my own. I guess I had the same instincts as Peter.”
In Navarro’s second memo, dated February 23, he urged for immediate funding to “minimize economic and social disruption.””Any member of the Task Force who wants to be cautious about appropriating funds for a crisis that could inflict trillions of dollars in economic damage and take millions of lives has come to the wrong administration,” Navarro wrote.
But at a press gaggle on February 24, Navarro assured that coronavirus was “nothing to worry about for the American people” under Trump’s leadership.”Since the day that President Trump pulled down the flights from China to the US, he has been actively leading the situation in terms of this crisis with the task force. Nothing to worry about for the American people,” Navarro said.”This country’s done a beautiful job under President’s leadership [sic] in terms of managing this situation. He’s working on a daily basis with the task force and we’re taking steps to anticipate — what I like to say — where the puck’s gonna be. We’re skating there in defense of the American people and the American economy. So you can be sure you’re that in great hands with the Trump administration.”
In a statement to CNN, Navarro defended his February 24 statement.”‘Nothing to worry about’ indicates the American people should be confident in the strong leadership of President Trump handling the crisis, NOT the seriousness of the crisis itself. To suggest otherwise is simply mischief and fake news,” said Navarro.
Navarro continued to wave off concern that America’s economy would suffer from the virus.On February 23, while appearing on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Navarro said that the American economy was not “particularly vulnerable to what happens in China” with the virus.”With respect to the economic impacts, Maria, I think what we have learned, with President Trump’s tough stand on China, is that the American economy is extremely strong and not particularly vulnerable to what happens in China. So we’re going to go about our business and try to get what we need in Trump time.”
He knew, he lied and he’s still lying.
The article goes on to show how he also lied continuously about the economy. I think we can be sure he doing that still as well. They all are.
The health experts are trying to walk the line. But they’re getting dragged into the politics too. It’s unavoidable when you are dealing with Dear Leader.
We came so close to getting out of this without a monumental disaster. But here it is and their dishonesty, corruption and ineptitude is even worse than we imagined.