'I didn't do it': Trump shuns responsibility for cutting pandemic team before White House cuts mic of reporter asking 'nasty question'

Authored by independent.co.uk and submitted by progress18

Donald Trump shifted blame for cutting his administration's global health security team in 2018, telling a reporter who asked whether he takes responsibility that she asked a "nasty question".

PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor asked why the president doesn't "take responsibility" for the administration's slow response to the Covid-19 outbreak despite his disbanding of a White House office on pandemic response.

He replied: "I just think that's a nasty question ... When you say me, I didn't do it."

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Under a reorganisation from then-National Security Adviser John Bolton, the departure of Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council has left the administration without any senior official overseeing a US pandemic response, despite the heightened security risks of a public health emergency or bioterror attack. He was not replaced.

Ms Alcindor asked Mr Trump to clarify: "You don't know anything about that?"

The president said: "You say we did that. I don't know anything about it. ... Let people go. You used to be with a different newspaper. Things like that happen."

As her microphone audio was cut off, the president said: "We're doing a great job."

The president's shutdown of that team has also faced criticism within his own administration, as public health officials have said its disbanding likely cost valuable response time to a virus that has now sickened at least 1,800 people in the US, including the deaths of at least 41 people.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who is among the team leading the administration's response to the outbreak, has said that "it would be nice if the office was still there."

"We worked very well with that office", he said this week.

The president has struggled to answer why exactly he chose to close the office.

He told reporters last month: "I'm a businessperson. I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly."

But he can't — Georgetown public management professor Don Moynihan explained: "Once you have gutted institutional capacity, you cannot, in fact, quickly restore it."

BaaBaaSpaceSheep on March 13rd, 2020 at 23:06 UTC »

Obama had it all setup for Trump to contain or defuse a pandemic. But Trump had to fuck with the safety nets that Obama had setup.

First, Trump cut the global health security unit, whose role was to oversee global pandemics:

It was two years ago when Trump ordered the shutdown of the White House National Security Council's entire global health security unit. NBC News had a good report on this recently, noting that the president's decision "to downsize the White House national security staff -- and eliminate jobs addressing global pandemics -- is likely to hamper the U.S. government's response to the coronavirus."

Then:

In 2018, the Trump Administration cut 80 percent of CDC funding used to fight global pandemics. The funding support, which went to training local health professionals and bolstering emergency response across 49 countries, was reduced to just 10 nations. China wasn’t included in the revised list.

Source

Then:

Last October, the Trump Administration opted to discontinue a Bush-era program expanded under Obama—called “Predict”—that monitored the threat of animal-born diseases to humans, the possible origin point of the novel coronavirus. The program was behind the discovery of more than 1,000 viruses, including an Ebola strain.

Source

He fucking cut programs and cut budgets that protected us against pandemics like this. He gambled that there wouldn't be a pandemic and he lost. He is responsible for the deaths of Americans in this pandemic.

hymie0 on March 13rd, 2020 at 22:43 UTC »

He told reporters last month: "I'm a businessperson. I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly."

My house catches fire. I call 911

An HR representative springs into action. She puts out a job offer for six experienced fire fighters. The hiring process begins -- background checks, interviews, references.

She also submits a request to the Town council to purchase a fire truck. Three vendors, competing bids.

They should be ready in about four months.

PaulDelesalle on March 13rd, 2020 at 21:04 UTC »

This was so ridiculous. Smh. He's such a child.