Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar quieted CNN reporter Jim Acosta during the White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing on Friday after Acosta suggested that the administration had “dropped the ball” in responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
Acosta referenced a report published by CNN earlier in the day that highlighted how Azar said during a biodefence summit last April that a flu pandemic was something that kept a lot of people up at night in his field.
“For 15 years this country has had a massive effort at the federal, state, and local level of preparedness for pandemic. Now, that largely has been, as I said in those remarks about pandemic flu preparedness,” Azar responded. “We knew about SARS, we know about MERS, which were earlier modifications or variance of the coronavirus. None of those achieved anything like what we are seeing today.”
“But that’s why, for successive presidencies, including the leadership of President Trump, there’s been a great focus on pandemic preparedness,” Azar continued. “In fact, it was just in September that the president signed the pandemic flu preparedness Executive Order and we have also updated the pandemic crisis action plan which has been the playbook from which we have been working, the pandemic flu plan, again, the action plan from which we have been working, that coordinates the whole of government, whole of economy approach. So, we have all been very focused on pandemic preparedness. That’s what we do. But this particular strain of pandemic, who would have known this particular strain?”
WATCH:
Jim @Acosta is a transparent hack. So @realdonaldtrump treated him like one. Then, for a cherry on top, Sec Azar dunks on Acosta, too. pic.twitter.com/shIDAmB2Ve
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) April 3, 2020
TRANSCRIPT:
CNN’s JIM ACOSTA: Where is Dr. Fauci?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know, but every time you ask the question, whenever he’s not here, you look and you say, ‘where is he?’ And you’ll say, ‘is there a problem?’ There’s not problem whatsoever. Every time he’s not here, sometimes I will ask him to come because that’s the first question that you and a couple of others from the fake news establishment ask is, ‘where is Dr. Fauci?’ We are doing great together. We are covering a different subject today. Go ahead. Go ahead Jim.
ACOSTA: Mr. President, you have said nobody could have seen this pandemic coming. But, in fact, Secretary Azar at a biodefense summit in April 2019 said, ‘of course the thing that people ask, what keeps you most up at night in the biodefense world, pandemic flu of course. I think everyone in this room probably shares that concern.’ Your Health and Human Services secretary was aware that this had potential of being a very big problem around the world, a pandemic of this nature. Who dropped the ball?
TRUMP: Well, I always knew that pandemics are one of the worst things that could happen. There has been nothing like this since probably 1917, that was the big one in Europe … I have heard about, let me finish. I’ve heard about this for a long time, pandemics, you do not want pandemics. And I do not think he was talking about a specific pandemic. He was talking about the threat of a pandemic, could happen, and it could happen, most people thought it wouldn’t and most people did not understand the severity of it, this is very severe what has happened is very severe. But I would let you answer that, I assume he was talking about the concept of a pandemic.
HHS SECRETARY ALEX AZAR: For 15 years this country has had a massive effort at the federal, state, and local level of preparedness for pandemic. Now, that largely has been, as I said in those remarks about pandemic flu preparedness. We knew about SARS, we know about MERS, which were earlier modifications or variance of the coronavirus. None of those achieved anything like what we are seeing today. But that’s why, for successive presidencies, including the leadership of President Trump, there’s been a great focus on pandemic preparedness. In fact, it was just in November that the president signed the pandemic flu preparedness Executive Order and we have also updated the pandemic crisis action plan which has been the playbook from which we have been working, the pandemic flu plan, again, the action plan from which we have been working, that coordinates the whole of government, whole of economy approach. So we have all been very focused on pandemic preparedness. That’s what we do. But this particular strain of pandemic, who would have known this particular strain?
ACOSTA: Secretary Azar, if you were preparing for a pandemic or if this government were preparing for pandemic, why is it that we do not have enough masks? Why is it do we not have enough medical equipment in this country?
TRUMP: Previous administration’s gave us very little ammunition for the military and very little shelf space. You know the answer. The previous administration, the shelves were empty, the shelves were empty, so what you should do is speak to the people from the previous administration, Jim, and ask them that question, because the shelves were empty and you know what else? The military shelves were also empty. We had no ammunition. Literally. That was, one of your favorite generals, we have sir, we have no ammunition, guess what, we had very little medical supply also.