White House Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows: 'We're Not Going To Control The Pandemic'
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Sunday said the United States is “not going to control” the coronavirus pandemic, an apparent admission of defeat against a virus that has so far killed nearly 225,000 people nationwide.
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Meadows was asked about Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to continue campaigning across the country despite several of his top aides testing positive for COVID-19.
“Your website is talking about, ‘Well, now we think the spread is coming from small social groups and family groups,’” Meadows told CNN’s Jake Tapper while defending Pence. “First it was large groups. Now it’s small groups.”
Meadows’ statement falsely suggested that public health experts reversed course on how the virus spreads. But in fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this month that transmission can occur in both large groups ― like President Donald Trump’s massive campaign rallies ― and in small household gatherings.
“It’s coming from all sorts of places because the pandemic’s out of control,” Tapper told Meadows.
“So here’s what we have to do: We’re not going to control the pandemic,” Meadows said. “We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas ―”
Tapper interrupted, “Why aren’t we going to get control of the pandemic?”
“Because it is a contagious virus,” Meadows responded. “Just like the flu.”
But Tapper continued to press him, asking why the Trump administration wouldn’t focus on controlling the spread of the virus.
“What we need to do is make sure that we have the proper mitigation factors whether it’s therapies or vaccines or treatments to make sure that people don’t die from this,” Meadows said. He then falsely accused Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of wanting to “lock everybody down.”
