Yahoo Finance Donald Trump, In CBS News Interview, Defends His Retweet Of Chuck Woolery’s Claim That CDC Officials Are Lying About COVID-19
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Donald Trump defended his retweet this week of Chuck Woolery’s claim that Centers for Disease Control officials and others are “lying” about the coronavirus.
CBS News Catherine Herridge asked Trump, “You reposted a tweet yesterday saying that CDC and health officials are lying. You understand this is confusing for the public. So who do they believe? You, or the medical professionals like Dr. Fauci?”
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“I didn’t make a comment,” Trump told Herridge. “I did. I reposted a tweet that a lot of people feel. But all I am doing is making a comment. I’m just putting somebody’s voice out there. There are many voices. There are many people that think we shouldn’t do this kind of testing, because all we do, it’s a trap.”
Portions of the interview aired on CBS This Morning on Wednesday and CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell on Tuesday.
In a tweet on Sunday, Woolery wrote, “The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it.”
Trump retweeted the comment, which triggered questions from White House reporters on whether Trump was attacking his own health officials about the coronavirus.
On Wednesday, USA Today published an op ed from Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, in which he attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who is a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force.
Navarro wrote that “Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.”
“So when you ask me whether I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is: only with skepticism and caution,” he wrote.
Alyssa Farah, the White House director of strategic communications, wrote on Twitter that Navarro op-ed “didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone. @realDonaldTrump values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration.”
In her interview, Herridge also asked Trump why he thought African Americans were still dying while in law enforcement custody.
“So are white people. So are white people. What a terrible question to ask. So are white people. More white people by the way. More white people,” Trump said. He said that the killing of George Floyd was “terrible,” but also said, “what a terrible question to ask.”
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