A video has emerged of Donald Trump talking about cutting the US pandemic response team in 2018 – days after claiming that he knew nothing about the disbanded White House unit.
Mr Trump said of the pandemic team that “some of the people we’ve cut they haven’t been used for many, many years and if we ever need them we can get them very quickly and rather then spending the money”.
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“I’m a business person, I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them,” he added.
The unit had been established by the previous White House administration in 2014 after the outbreak of Ebola.
In a press conference on Friday, Mr Trump denied knowing anything about the cuts in 2018 when questioned by Yamiche Alcindor, a reporter for PBS.
The US president responded by saying: “Well, I just think it’s a nasty question ...You say we did that, I don’t know anything about it. »