WASHINGTON, D. C. - President Donald Trump must not be reading his mail from Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
At a Friday afternoon press conference on the U.S. response to the coronavirus outbreak, President Donald Trump told a reporter he didn’t "know anything about” closure of an office in the White House dedicated to fighting global pandemics like coronavirus.
When asked about claims from former staff at the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense that the United States lost valuable time addressing the epidemic because of the office’s 2018 dissolution, Trump instead declared his administration’s January 31 decision to restrict travel from China after the coronavirus broke out “saved thousands of lives.”
“I didn’t do it,” Trump said of the closure. “You say we did that, I don’t know anything about it... You know, people let people go. You used to be with a different newspaper than you are now, you know, things like that happen.”
His remarks drew immediate criticism from Brown, who sent out a “tweet” and a press release that noted Brown wrote a letter to Trump in 2018 about the closure.
“In our globalized world, where diseases are never more than a plane ride away, we must do all we can to prepare for the next, inevitable outbreak and keep Americans safe from disease," said the letter that Brown reproduced. "I urge you to act swiftly in reaffirming your commitment to global health security by taking immediate action to designate senior-level NSC personnel to focus on global health security, supporting adequate and appropriate funding for global health security initiatives, and leading the way in preparing for the next pandemic threat.”
"We are less prepared today because of his systemic cuts to programs like this and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), and his constant sabotage of our healthcare system,” Brown continued.
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