Leaked Reports Show White House Knew Of COVID-19 Spike As Trump Downplayed Crisis
The White House has been aware for more than a month that coronavirus cases have been surging nationwide as President Donald Trump has publicly downplayed the virus and held crowded events, according to private documents obtained and released Tuesday by a key House committee.
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, released six weekly White House coronavirus task force reports showing that the White House has known since just after Labor Day that COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing and that there is a serious need for more testing and mask mandates.
But the White House chose to hide these reports, according to Clyburn, as Trump publicly claimed in September the coronavirus “affects virtually nobody” and hosted potential superspreader events in states the task force warned had spikes in cases, including Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Carolina.
Until now, the task force reports were shared privately with state governments but were not disclosed to the public.
The reports show that White House officials watched as the number of states in the “red zone” ― a region with newly diagnosed COVID-19 case rates above 100 per 100,000 people over the previous week, and lab test positivity results above 10% ― jumped from 18 to 31 between Sept. 13 and Oct. 18.
The reports also show a dangerous disconnect between the task force’s findings and Trump’s actions. In its Sept. 20 report, the task force warned the number of states in the “red zone” had ticked up to 18. Wisconsin was seeing a particularly high increase in positive cases, at 145%. Yet, on Oct. 1, Trump held two more rallies in the state.
By Oct. 18, the task force reported that 31 states were in the “red zone.” A day later, Trump told campaign staffers on a call, “People are tired of COVID. ... People are saying, ‘Whatever. Just leave us alone.’ They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots,”...
