President Trump scolded Dr. Deborah Birx, one of the top officials on the White House coronavirus task force, after she provided a grim assessment about how the United States is handling the pandemic.
The president claimed Birx, who also serves as the U.S. global AIDS coordinator, took the “bait” laid out by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics,” Trump tweeted Monday morning. “In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!”
The comments from the president came a day after Birx issued a stark warning about a “new phase” in the pandemic.
“We are in a new phase,” she said in an interview on CNN. “I want to be very clear. What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It’s into the rural as equal urban areas. And to everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus.”
Pelosi disparaged Birx’s credibility during a recent closed-door meeting reported by Politico. The speaker accused Birx of spreading disinformation during a meeting for negotiating another coronavirus relief package with top Republicans last week, and she referenced a New York Times article that claimed that Birx was too optimistic about the coronavirus data.
Asked about it during Sunday’s edition of ABC’s This Week, the California Democrat said, “I think the president is spreading disinformation about the virus, and she is his appointee. So I don’t have confidence there, no.”
Until now, Birx has largely evaded the ire of Trump, who has openly feuded with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and another member of the White House coronavirus task force.
Alyssa Farah, the White House director of strategic communications, said on Twitter Sunday it was “deeply irresponsible” to question Birx.
“It is deeply irresponsible of Speaker Pelosi to repeatedly try to undermine & create public distrust in Dr Birx, the top public health professional on the coronavirus task force. It’s also just wrong. Period. Hard stop,” Farah said.
