(04-06-2020, 01:24 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Never go against the central office.

(04-06-2020, 01:55 PM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote: Especially if they’re Sicilian and death is on the line.

(04-06-2020, 01:23 PM)michaelsean Wrote: I think it was not only chain of command, but emailing it to 20 people and having it leaked.  But my bros FIL said it's not even a question no matter who is president.  I've never met the guy so for all I know he's off his rocker, so take it for what it's worth.

Quote:Acting Navy Secretary Lashes Out On Virus-Plagued Ship At Commander He Fired



Updated at 9:03 p.m. ET
Three days after firing Capt. Brett Crozier as commander of the coronavirus-sickened nuclear aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly boarded the warship docked in Guam and delivered a stinging, profanity-laced denunciation of its deposed skipper.

NPR has obtained an audio recording of Modly's remarks.

Much of the diatribe delivered by the Navy's top civilian to the ship's audibly grumbling crew was a condemnation of a March 30 letter that Crozier emailed to his superior officials. It describes dire conditions on the Roosevelt as thousands of crew members remained on board despite dozens of confirmed cases of coronavirus infection.

The letter leaked and set off a furor on March 31, the day the San Francisco Chronicle broke the first story about it.

"It was my opinion that if he didn't think that information was going to get out into the public in this information age that we live in, then he was a) too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly said to the sailors (at that point, a voice can be heard yelling, "What the f***?"). "The alternate is that he did it on purpose, and that's a serious violation of the uniform code of military justice, which you are all familiar with."


Listen to part of the recording obtained by NPR here:
"Too naive or too stupid"

LISTEN· 1:56

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Monday evening, Modly issued a statement apologizing for calling Crozier stupid.

Quote:"Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naïve nor stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite.  We pick our carrier commanding officers with great care.  Captain Crozier is smart and passionate.  I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship."

Modly also said he wanted "to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused."


Last Thursday, while announcing that he had relieved the 50-year-old former Navy helicopter and F-18 fighter jet pilot of his command, Modly insisted he had "no information" that Crozier had anything to do with the leaking of the emailed letter to the Chronicle. But aboard the Roosevelt, the acting Navy secretary painted a more damning portrait of the sacked commander's alleged intentions.


"It was a betrayal, and I can tell you one other thing: Because he did that, he put it in the public's forum, and it's now become a big controversy in Washington, D.C., and across the country about a martyr [commanding officer] who wasn't getting the help he needed and therefore had to go through the chain of command, a chain of command which includes the media," Modly asserted. "And I'm gonna tell you something, all of you: There's never a situation where you should consider the media a part of your chain of command."


Modly warned the crew, who gave Crozier a rousing hero's send-off as he left the ship Thursday, that the news media "has an agenda."


"And the agenda that they have depends on which side of the political aisle they sit, and I'm sorry that's the way the country is now, but it's the truth," said the man who has been acting Navy secretary since last November, when former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer was forced out. "And so they use it to divide us, they use it to embarrass the Navy, they use it to embarrass you, while you're out here, dealing with something that this country hasn't had to deal with in over a hundred years."


Pivoting from pillorying the news media, Modly assured the sailors that the American people "think, of all the people in the world that can keep their s**t together in something like this, it's the United States Navy and our sailors," he said, adding that it is their duty not to complain. "If this ship was in combat and there were hypersonic missiles coming at you, you'd be pretty f*****g scared too. But you do your jobs."


Modly also defended his decision, which he insists was his own, to remove Crozier from his command.


"The former vice president of the United States, Joe Biden, suggested just yesterday that my decision was criminal," Modly said, apparently referring to comments Biden made Sunday on ABC's Meet the Press and subsequently posted on Twitter. "I assure you it was not, because I understand the facts, and those facts show that what your captain did was very, very wrong in a moment when we expected him to be the calming force on a turbulent sea."


Modly alleged that Crozier's letter had also demoralized those working in the U.S. territory of Guam with respect to accommodating sailors leaving the Roosevelt to be quarantined onshore.


"So think about that when you cheer a man off the ship who exposed you to that," he added. "I understand you love the guy. It's good that you love him, but you're not required to love him."


The Defense Department initially made no mention in its public advisories of Modly personally calling on the Roosevelt. It provided no transcript of the remarks he made there, calling it "a private visit " by the Navy's top civilian.


On Monday, several hours after an audio recording of his remarks was leaked, Modly issued a statement.


"I have not listened to a recording of my remarks since speaking to the crew so I cannot verify if the transcript is accurate. The spoken words were from the heart, and meant for them," he wrote in a message emailed by the Pentagon's press operation. "I stand by every word I said, even, regrettably any profanity that may have been used for emphasis."


Asked at a White House news conference Monday evening about the dispute between the acting Navy secretary and Crozier, President Trump suggested he may personally intervene to resolve the matter.


"You have two good people and they're arguing," he said. "I'm good at settling these arguments."


Trump said Crozier should not have sent the letter. "It shows weakness," he said, calling it unfair to the families of the warship's crew.


"His career prior to that was very good," Trump said of Crozier. "I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day."


Crozier could not be reached for comment. On Sunday, The New York Times reported that friends said the captain had tested positive for the coronavirus and was "sitting alone in the 'distinguished visitors quarters' on Naval Base Guam, battling a coronavirus infection."


Meanwhile, a U.S. Navy blog reported on Monday that efforts continue toward a goal of testing 100% of the Roosevelt's crew of 4,865.

"As of today, 61% of the USS Theodore Roosevelt crew have been tested for COVID-19, with 173 positive cases so far," the blog noted. "Additionally, 1,999 Sailors have moved ashore. As testing continues, the ship will keep enough Sailors on board to sustain essential services and sanitize the ship in port. There have been zero hospitalizations."

Quote:A ‘Liberty’ Rebellion in Idaho Threatens to Undermine Coronavirus Orders


SANDPOINT, Idaho — Inside an old factory building north of Boise, a few dozen people gathered last week to hear from Ammon Bundy, the man who once led an armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge.

The meeting, which appeared to violate orders by Gov. Brad Little of Idaho to avoid group gatherings, was an assertion of what Mr. Bundy said was a constitutional right to peacefully assemble. But Mr. Bundy said he also hoped to create a network of people ready to come to the aid of those facing closure of their businesses or other interference from the government as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

 
“If it gets bad enough, and our rights are infringed upon enough, we can physically stand in defense in whatever way we need to,” Mr. Bundy told the meeting. “But we hope we don’t have to get there.”

In a state with pockets of deep wariness about both big government and mainstream medicine, the sweeping restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the virus have run into outright rebellion in some parts of Idaho, which is facing its own worrying spike in coronavirus cases.

The opposition is coming not only from people like Mr. Bundy, whose armed takeover of the Oregon refuge with dozens of other men and women in 2016 led to a 41-day standoff, but also from some state lawmakers and a county sheriff who are calling the governor’s statewide stay-at-home order an infringement on individual liberties.
 
Health care providers and others have been horrified at the public calls to countermand social-distancing requirements, warning that failing to take firm measures could overwhelm Idaho’s small hospitals and put large numbers of people at risk of dying.

“There are a lot of people that listen to those voices around here,” said Dr. Hans Hurt, an emergency doctor at Bonner General Health, a medical center in the town of Sandpoint, 45 miles north of Coeur d’Alene. “Even if it’s just a small group that wants to exercise their right to assemble, it puts the community at large at such a high risk.”

Many of the latest claims about the Constitution have come from Idaho’s northern panhandle, where vaccination rates for other diseases have always been low and where wariness of government is high.

State Representative Heather Scott, a Republican from Blanchard, northwest of Coeur d’Alene, is encouraging her constituents to push back on the statewide stay-at-home order, saying people have “a God-given constitutionally protected right to peacefully assemble.”

Tim Remington, a Coeur d’Alene pastor who was appointed to the State House of Representatives in January, led a church service on March 29, four days after the stay-at-home order went into effect, that was open to the public.

And in Bonner County, Sheriff Daryl Wheeler posted an open letter saying that the public had been “misled” by public health officials’ dire predictions and called on the governor to convene an emergency session of the Legislature to debate his stay-at-home order.
 
“In the spirit of liberty and the Constitution, you can request those that are sick to stay home,” Sheriff Wheeler wrote. “But, at the same time, you must release the rest of us to go on with our normal business.”

The dissent has left local medical workers pleading with Idahoans to heed the message that has helped contain the coronavirus elsewhere: Stay home. Don’t gather in groups. And, perhaps most challenging, trust us.

“Don’t take legal advice from a doctor,” said Dr. Benjamin Good, an emergency medicine physician affiliated with Bonner General Health. “And don’t take medical advice from a sheriff.”

At a time when health officials say social-distancing measures are vital to avert catastrophic outbreaks of the kind that could overwhelm hospitals — as happened in Italy — Idaho’s tensions threaten to undermine compliance. While the state was one of the last in the country to identify a coronavirus case, it now has far more cases per capita than California. Blaine County, which includes the popular Sun Valley ski resort, now has the largest per capita concentration of coronavirus cases in the nation.

The state as of Monday had 1,170 cases; 13 people had died.

Yet the blowback to the governor’s stay-at-home order has continued to escalate.

Mr. Bundy said in an interview that a group in the Boise area was looking for a venue to host an Easter service this coming weekend with a potential crowd of 1,000 people. Mr. Bundy said a man in Twin Falls hoped to host communion in a park. And Mr. Bundy himself is now leading regular meetings with dozens of people to assess how to fight back against what he calls government overreach, including with a physical presence if necessary.
 
“I will be there, and I will bring as many people as I can,” he told those who attended the meeting he convened on March 26, a day after the statewide stay-at-home order went into effect. “We will form a legal defense for you. We will perform an active political defense for you. And we will also, if necessary, provide a physical defense for you, so that you can continue in your rights.”

Much of the region’s tensions revolve around skepticism over the advice from medical leaders, which some people here regard as unwarranted. Mr. Bundy compared the effects of the virus to the flu, even though epidemiologists have warned that it can kill at a much higher rate.

He said that he would prefer in any case to become infected soon, while he is otherwise healthy.

“I want the virus now,” Mr. Bundy said.

Mr. Wheeler, the Bonner County sheriff, said in his letter to the governor that the state needed to discuss how serious the threat was. “I do not believe that suspending the Constitution was wise, because Covid-19 is nothing like the plague,” he wrote.

Ms. Scott, while acknowledging the coronavirus outbreak as an emergency, sent a newsletter to constituents calling it “The Virus That Tried to Kill the Constitution.”

Doctors in Idaho have been concerned not only about the public calls for canceling the governor’s stay-at-home order, but also about comments that play down the danger of the virus. Covid-19, the illness caused by the virus, is a particular threat to people who are older or who have underlying conditions, as evidenced by a nursing home in Washington State where the virus contributed to dozens of deaths.

“If we stop doing what we’re doing, it could deteriorate so quickly, and our resources could be overwhelmed so quickly,” said Dr. Hurt, the emergency doctor at Bonner General Health. “It’s scary for the people in this community, and scary for us as hospital workers, to be inundated with that.”

Dr. Robert Burnett, the medical director for cardiovascular surgery at Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene, just south of Ms. Scott’s district, said he personally viewed the comments from the lawmaker and the sheriff as “criminal.” He said he was “horrified” that public officials would use their platforms to encourage behavior that threatens lives.

To Dr. Burnett, Ms. Scott and Mr. Wheeler have “relinquished their claim to a ventilator” should they get sick from the virus and need one — although he hastened to add that they would get complete care should they get sick.
 
While the region does not have very many patients — there have been about 50 cases in the panhandle — some medical workers said that may be because of limited testing; there could well be more undetected cases. Hospitals have been bracing for a potential surge.

Outside Bonner General Health, officials have erected two tents to help treat patients should extra space be needed. Worried about constrained supply chains, they are reusing masks, storing each one in a paper bag after use to be opened five days later. In a former grieving room, dozens of paper bags are hanging on a line, clipped with clothespins.

One resident rode by the hospital on a bicycle over the weekend and tossed over a bag containing a few N95 masks.

Dr. Good, the emergency physician, said the decision to urge people to stay home was not an easy one. Last month, when that conversation was happening locally, Dr. Good said, he stopped by the home of his best friends in town, who run a restaurant, to explain the disruption that was going to be needed.

“It was a horrible discussion to have,” Dr. Good said.

Mr. Little’s statewide stay-at-home order was issued two weeks ago. He had previously issued a limited order focused on Blaine County, where medical workers were already battling a surge of cases. That county has identified more than 400 cases — close to two cases for every 100 residents.

Part of the dispute over Mr. Little’s order was whether churches qualified as essential businesses.

Mr. Remington, the lawmaker who also serves as a pastor, said he had heard from the lieutenant governor that churches would be considered essential and proceeded accordingly. But the official order does not list churches as essential businesses.

After the governor’s order, Mr. Remington said, the church encouraged parishioners to stay home unless they felt they needed to join with other worshipers for their well-being. He said the church provides services for people in substance abuse rehabilitation and wanted to keep the doors open for them while encouraging social distancing and offering masks.

But then the board of the church decided, against Mr. Remington’s wishes, to halt all in-person services for the time being.

Mr. Remington said he was hoping that more Idahoans would decide to stand up for their rights. “Whatever happened to ‘Give me liberty or give me death’?” he said.

The post A ‘Liberty’ Rebellion in Idaho Threatens to Undermine Coronavirus Orders appeared first on New York Times.

Quote:Trump removes independent watchdog for coronavirus funds, upending oversight panel


President Donald Trump has upended the panel of federal watchdogs overseeing implementation of the $2 trillion coronavirus law, tapping a replacement for the Pentagon official who was supposed to lead the effort.

Glenn A. Fine et al. looking at a man in a suit and tie: Glenn Fine.© Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo Glenn Fine.
A panel of inspectors general had named Glenn Fine — the acting Pentagon watchdog — to lead the group charged with monitoring the coronavirus relief effort. But Trump on Monday removed Fine from his post, instead naming the EPA inspector general to serve as the temporary Pentagon watchdog in addition to his other responsibilities.


That decision, which began circulating on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning, effectively removed Fine from his role overseeing the coronavirus relief effort, since the new law permits only current inspectors general to fill the position.

“Mr. Fine is no longer on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee," Dwrena Allen, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon inspector general’s office, confirmed.

Fine’s removal is Trump’s latest incursion into the community of independent federal watchdogs — punctuated most dramatically by his late Friday ouster of the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson, whose handling of a whistleblower report ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment.

Trump has also begun sharply attacking Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm, following a report from her office that described widespread testing delays and supply issues at the nation’s hospitals.

“Another Fake Dossier!” Trump tweeted, mentioning Grimm’s tenure as inspector general during the Obama administration. He didn’t mention, though, that Grimm has been serving as a federal watchdog since 1999, spanning administrations of both parties.

Trump’s targeting of Atkinson drew an unusual rebuke from Michael Horowitz, the inspector general of the Justice Department who also oversees a council of inspectors general. Horowitz said Atkison handled the whistleblower matter appropriately and defended the broader IG community.

“The Inspector General Community will continue to conduct aggressive, independent oversight of the agencies that we oversee,” he said in a statement after Atkinson’s ouster. Atkinson, too, issued a lengthy statement Saturday accusing Trump of removing him for following whistleblower laws.


Lawmakers were given notice Tuesday that Trump had designated Sean O’Donnell, the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency, to take over the Pentagon watchdog’s office in addition to his current post. That designation negated Fine’s appointment to the coronavirus oversight panel.

"Yesterday, the President nominated Mr. Jason Abend for the position of DoD Inspector General," Allen said. "The same day, the President also designated Mr. Sean W. O'Donnell, who is the Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General (EPA IG), to serve as the Acting DoD IG in addition to his current duties at the EPA."

The new coronavirus law includes multiple layers of oversight, the most powerful of which is the panel of inspectors general given wide latitude to probe any aspect of its implementation. Fine was named by fellow inspectors general to lead that panel just last week. Now, his colleagues will be forced to make a new selection.

Fine had been the acting Pentagon watchdog since early 2016 after joining the Defense Department inspector general’s office in 2015 during the Obama administration. He was previously the Justice Department’s inspector general from 2000 to 2011, spanning three administrations of both parties.

Fine will revert to his Senate-confirmed position as principal deputy inspector general and "remains focused and committee to the important mission" of the Pentagon watchdog's office, Allen said.

Abend, who has been nominated to take over as the permanent Pentagon inspector general, is a senior policy adviser with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

But the Senate is out of session until at least April 20, and a shortened election-year calendar will give the Senate Armed Services Committee precious little time to confirm Abend, meaning O’Donnell may be in for an extended stay at the Pentagon.

(04-07-2020, 10:12 AM)GMDino Wrote:

Fox anchor: Can you tell me your thoughts on the drug that is used normally to treat malaria.

Dr. Haseltine: It's sad to me that people are promoting that drug.

Anchor: But what about the anecdotal evidence?

Haseltine: That's complete and utter nonsense. Irresponsible. pic.twitter.com/0YaGcS3MtH

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) April 6, 2020

 

(04-07-2020, 04:36 PM)GMDino Wrote: Everything Trump Touches Dies.

That didn't take longhttps://t.co/aN6sGkOjUo

— *you're (@RKJ65) April 7, 2020

 

(04-07-2020, 05:00 PM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote: Yeah, I never believed he was stupid that’s why I called him stupid just a day ago.

Clearly, this guy is a liar and lacks the integrity to be acting Secretary of the Navy.

(04-08-2020, 10:20 AM)GMDino Wrote: This what the GOP calls "leadership".

This is what Republican voters call "speaking his mind" and "being decisive".

TRUMP: "Were going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO."

*16 minutes later*

REPORTER: Is the time to freeze funding to the WHO during a pandemic?

TRUMP: "No, maybe not. I mean, I'm not saying I'm going to do it."

REPORTER: Yes you did

TRUMP: "No, I didn't." pic.twitter.com/kTtJDktAAQ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 8, 2020

 

(04-08-2020, 11:40 AM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote: The WHO declared a public health emergency of INTERNATIONAL concern on 1/30/2020 or month before Trump called it a Democrat hoax.

The press should really stop reporting his lies because unfortunately about 60 million people still believe his bullshit.

(04-08-2020, 12:14 PM)Goalpost Wrote: End of January, Trump initiates travel ban.

Feb 1st...Washington Post....Flu is a bigger threat than Corona Virus

Feb 5th...NY Times....Corona Virus ban is "unjust'

Quote:The United States State Department is denying entry to foreign nationals who have recently been to China, is screening American citizens who arrive home from China as well as asking them to self-quarantine for 14 days. It has told American citizens not to visit the country at all. Major airlines including British Airways, Lufthansa and all three major American carriers have halted all flights to China, while the cruise line Royal Caribbean is denying boarding to any person who has traveled to, from or through China or Hong Kong in the past 15 days. Travel companies such as those airlines are motivated both by pressure from employees and by the falling demand for flights. Flying empty planes to and from China is, after all, not profitable.


But what has motivated the response from governments? It doesn’t appear to be evidence. Measures like screening at airports, quarantining cruise ships or flights with confirmed cases and isolating communities at the center of an outbreak can be effective, said Erin Sorrell, an assistant research professor at Georgetown University who studies emerging infectious diseases. However, she and other experts say the available evidence suggests that total border shutdowns are not an effective means of containment of respiratory viruses. Resources are better used, she argued, treating sick patients and developing vaccines and other countermeasures.

Sadly, one doesn’t have to look far for evidence of these top-down decisions morphing into outright racism within the general population, a trend that has a long history in the narrative of outbreaks such as this one.

(04-08-2020, 12:14 PM)Goalpost Wrote: End of January, Trump initiates travel ban.

Feb 1st...Washington Post....Flu is a bigger threat than Corona Virus

Feb 5th...NY Times....Corona Virus ban is "unjust'

(04-08-2020, 12:14 PM)Goalpost Wrote: End of January, Trump initiates travel ban.

Feb 1st...Washington Post....Flu is a bigger threat than Corona Virus

Feb 5th...NY Times....Corona Virus ban is "unjust'

Quote:Confronted with criticism about the lagging federal response to the coronavirus crisis, President Trump often boasts about his Jan. 31 decision to restrict travel from China, where the outbreak began, claiming he saved thousands of American lives.

But Trump has repeatedly overstated the effect of his decision, and the supposed opposition to it, even as he has misrepresented federal efforts to develop a vaccine and supply protective masks, ventilators and other critically needed gear.


“Nobody wanted that to happen,” he said Wednesday about the China travel ban. “Everybody thought it was just unnecessary to do it. And if we didn’t do that, thousands and thousands of people would have died, more than what’s happened.”


Speaking at a White House coronavirus briefing, Trump gave himself and his administration unabashed praise. “It’s hard not to be happy with the job we’re doing, that I can tell you,” he said.

With more than 68,000 confirmed cases and more than 1,000 U.S. deaths as of Thursday, Trump’s decision two months ago to restrict all foreign travelers from China, and to quarantine Americans returning from China for two weeks, had a short-lived impact at best, experts say.

“To the degree that it bought us time, we did not take advantage of that time,” said Jeffrey Levi, a public health expert at George Washington University, who said the coronavirus had already spread to other countries when Trump imposed the ban.

Levi said the administration should have begun widespread testing, improved medical surveillance systems, begun preparing hospitals and ordered emergency production of masks and ventilators “so we wouldn’t be in the difficult position we’re in today.”

Chris Beyrer, a professor of epidemiology and international health at Johns Hopkins University, said Trump issued his order too late to make a difference because coronavirus infections were already reported in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Toronto, as well as 26 other countries.

Any gains from the travel ban were lost in “the crucial early days and weeks of spread by our lack of testing, limited contact tracing, and failure to impose rapid travel and movement restrictions where cases were identified to limit clusters,” he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the public face of the administration’s public health response, has praised Trump’s decision on China but said it wasn’t enough to halt “the tsunami” of infections.

With its caseload fast rising, the United States will soon be the epicenter of the global pandemic, according to Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.

“We squandered weeks,” Jha said Thursday. The travel restrictions “created a sense of complacency because it felt like we did something meaningful.”

Asked Thursday about the fast spread of U.S. infections, Trump acted as if it were a point of pride, calling the soaring figures “a tribute to our testing” while casting doubt on the accuracy of China’s numbers.

“I’m sure you’re not able to tell what China’s testing and not testing,” he said.

China, which appears to have gotten its own outbreak under control, tightened its own travel restrictions Thursday. Beijing announced that it would temporarily block foreign nationals with valid visas and residence permits from entering the country.

Trump said he planned to speak by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday night.

As the crisis has worsened, Trump has repeatedly blamed what he calls “the Chinese virus,” although this week he briefly stopped amid reports of racist attacks on Asian Americans. He revived the term Thursday, however.

“I talk about the ‘Chinese virus’ and I mean it — that’s where it came from,” he said at the White House briefing, before praising Asian Americans. “I’m very close to them, as you know,” Trump said.

The president and some of his supporters continue to suggest China was responsible for the pandemic, which began in Wuhan, and some members of the administration have called it the “Wuhan virus.”

A video meeting of the Group of Seven nations ended Wednesday without a customary joint statement because other foreign ministers wouldn’t agree with a demand by Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, who chaired the meeting, to cite the Wuhan virus, not the coronavirus.

Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer, said the president is “trying to self-preserve by shifting blame for the problem to China and he’s trying to portray himself as a man of action by focusing on this one thing he did,” referring to the travel ban.

“He’s much more concerned about self-preservation and self-aggrandizement than he is about doing the right thing as a leader in a time of crisis,” said O’Brien, who worked as an advisor to Michael R. Bloomberg’s now-shuttered campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Trump repeatedly minimized the danger of the pandemic until March 13, when he declared a national emergency — “two very big words” — to free up $50 billion in federal resources to deal with the crisis even as he denied any responsibility for the slow response.

He has falsely claimed that testing, a key to identifying and containing the spreading virus, was widely available when it was not, shifting only this week to boasts about tests having finally ramped up.

He has also touted unproven remedies and falsely suggested a vaccine is imminent.

Trump has also overstated Democrats’ response to the travel ban, accusing Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Joe Biden, the putative Democratic presidential nominee, of opposing it. Neither one did so, although Biden blasted Trump more broadly for what he called a record of “xenophobia and hysteria.”


Washington is justified in criticizing Beijing for covering up the early stages of the outbreak by concealing reports of the virus and detaining doctors who sounded early alarms, according to China experts. But the mounting propaganda battle threatens to hamper cooperation at a critical moment.

“We should be cooperating at a time when China has learned a lot about this virus, and instead we’re engaging in this name-calling,” said Stephen A. Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, a nongovernmental group.

“The nationalism it’s stoked in China is terrible,” he added. “There are people in China who want to send masks and equipment to the rest of the world, but they’d rather send it to the [European Union] than the U.S. at this point.”

“Every effort that the administration should be making today should be focused on saving American lives. That the administration is seeking to talk about blame at this point is a political calculus that is incredibly irresponsible and inappropriate to the moment.”

Quote:Tens of thousands of travelers from China arrived in US as administration debated restrictions: report


Tens of thousands of travelers from China arrived in the U.S. as the Trump administration debated possible travel restrictions, Reuters reported. 

The decision to limit travel from China that President Trump announced Jan. 31 reportedly had been debated for a month before that. In the meantime, 14,000 people would arrive in the U.S. every day from China, according to numbers cited by the administration, Reuters reported. 

The debates involved National Security Council (NSC), the State Department and other federal agencies, two government officials familiar with the deliberations said. The disputes ranged from how to screen travelers coming from China to the economic impact of a potential restriction. 


National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin argued against the restrictions fearing an economic fallout, two former NSC officials and one of the officials involved told Reuters. 

Matthew Pottinger, a deputy national security adviser and a China expert, strongly disagreed and pushed for strict restrictions as he questioned the accuracy of China’s case reporting, according to Reuters.

Once the restrictions were proposed, a government official told Reuters it took at least a week for the president to adopt them. An official also said the discussions delayed screenings by at least a week. 

It is not known when the president was made aware of the NSC’s proposal, Reuters noted. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declined to comment to Reuters on the debate but said it was involved in the decision-making process as part of the administration’s coronavirus task force. 

A Treasury Department spokesperson told the news outlet Mnuchin “never objected to the decision to restrict flights from China.”


White House spokesman, Judd Deere, defended Kudlow to Reuters, saying “Any suggestion that Larry Kudlow objected to restricting flights from China to contain COVID-19 and protect the health of the American people is completely false. Larry fully supported the President’s bold decision.”

A statement from NSC spokesman John Ullyot said the conversations were “robust” and “professional.”

The NSC was first informed of the outbreak on Dec. 31, when Chinese officials emailed saying they had cases of pneumonia that could not be traced to the seasonal flu. Ullyot disputes this, saying the NSC found out on Jan. 3, but the CDC said its agency learned of the coronavirus in late December. 

Trump has cited the ban on non-U.S. citizens, who are not the immediate family of citizens or permanent residents traveling from China, as a success in blocking the virus. Several other travel bans have since been implemented.

But during the debates, one case of an individual who had visited Wuhan slipped through the screening process and became the first confirmed case in the country. Now, the U.S. has counted more than 321,700 cases and at least 9,180 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.