The Trump Administration figure who pushed the hardest for the travel ban from Europe, announced by President Donald Trump Wednesday night, was Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, Newsmax has learned.
Sources close to the White House confirmed to us that prior to the president’s evening address to the nation on the coronavirus crisis, there was considerable dissension among administration officials about the controversial ban on travel to all European countries except the United Kingdom.
The same sources said that throughout the day, Azar pushed hard for the travel ban and was easily the most outspoken administration official supporting it.
Azar’s outspokenness on behalf of what is easily the most contentious part of the president’s coronavirus response is surprising. A veteran of the Bush-43 Administration, Azar has been relatively low-key in his role on the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
In most of the task force briefings — on and off camera — he has been deferential to its chairman, Vice President Mike Pence (to whose 2012 campaign for governor of Indiana, then-Indianapolis resident Azar was a contributor).
But today, sources told us, Azar was anything but deferential and on the part of the president’s program dealing with the virus.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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