Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Friday he's concerned about the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus outbreak and whether the government can get control of the disease.
"Let the experts take this over," Biden said on CNN's "New Day."
"Everyone will have more confidence. I think one of the reasons it's falling is not just the pandemic concern, but the way in which the president is handling this."
Reports that government health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are being told to coordinate their statements with the White House before doing media interviews, are worrisome, said Biden.
The New York Times on Thursday said the White House had tightened control of the messaging surrounding the virus, ordering Fauci and other government experts to clear their messages through the office of Vice President Mike Pence, who has been tasked to coordinate the administration's response.
"What is this all about?" said Biden. "No one takes the president's word for these things. At a minimum, he exaggerates everything, and the idea that he's going to stand there and say everything is fine, don't worry? Who is going to believe that?"
Biden also noted a Health and Human Services whistleblower's report that personnel sent to receive incoming people from China were not trained or wearing protection to avoid illness.
He added that during the Ebola outbreak when he was vice president, there was a special office to set up to deal with pandemics, but Trump eliminated that office and made cuts to other agencies.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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