The post Trade adviser Peter Navarro tears into Fauci in blistering op-ed: ‘Wrong about everything’ appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>White House trade adviser Peter Navarro tore into Dr. Anthony Fauci in a stunning op-ed on Wednesday, saying the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, who has been a leading voice on the Coronavirus Task Force, has been “wrong about everything.”
“Dr. Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on,” Navarro wrote in a blistering op-ed for USA Today.
TRUMP WHITE HOUSE SLAMS FAUCI, CANCELS HIS TV APPEARANCES
Navarro began by saying that Fauci “fought against” Trump’s “courageous decision” in late January to suspend flights from China as the novel coronavirus began to spread, arguing that that decision “might well have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives.”
He continued: “When I warned in late January in a memo of a possibly deadly pandemic, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was telling our news media not to worry.”
Further, he wrote that in February, “Fauci was telling the public the China virus was low risk.” Navarro went on to complain Fauci was “flip-flopping on the use of masks.”
He dinged Fauci for downplaying falling mortality rates, amid the debate over whether businesses should be allowed to reopen or stay shuttered. Navarro added: “So when you ask me whether I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice my answer is: only with skepticism and caution.”
WHITE HOUSE MEMO WARNED IN RUN-UP TO PANDEMIC OF UP TO 2M DEATHS, ECONOMIC DEVASTATION
Navarro’s comments come as tensions have been bubbling between the White House and Fauci. Officials have reportedly been concerned about the number of times Fauci has “been wrong on things,” according to a report last week.
A senior administration official, though, told Fox News that Navarro’s op-ed slamming Fauci was “definitely not approved by the White House.”
Another White House official told Fox News that Navarro is “going rogue.”
Alyssa Farah, White House director of strategic communications, said on Twitter that the piece “didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone.”
She said President Trump “values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration.”
Trump, on his part, has said Fauci is “a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes,” and has criticized him for his back-and-forth guidance over masks.
“I disagree with him. You know, Dr. Fauci said ‘don’t wear masks,’ and now he says ‘wear them.’ And you know, he’s said numerous things,” Trump said in an interview last week with Greta Van Susteren. “‘Don’t close off China. Don’t ban China.’ And I did it anyway.”
FAUCI SAYS IT’S ‘FALSE NARRATIVE’ TO TAKE COMFORT IN LOW COVID-19 DEATH RATES
He added: “I sort of didn’t listen to my experts and I banned China.”
The president last week also said he had a “very good relationship” with Fauci, while saying: “I don’t always agree with him.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, during an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Monday, described Fauci as representing “one viewpoint within the administration.”
“The point of the task force is to be a whole of government look at what is best for this country,” she said. “That includes Dr. Fauci’s opinion…Ultimately, those conclusions are taken to the president.”
McEnany added: “Dr. Fauci is one member of a team, but rest-assured his viewpoint is represented and the information gets to the president through the task force.”
Fox News’ Kristin Fisher contributed to this report.
The post Trade adviser Peter Navarro tears into Fauci in blistering op-ed: ‘Wrong about everything’ appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The post Trump adviser claims Bolton could face jail time after judge allows book on White House tenure to proceed appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Read More
The post Trump adviser claims Bolton could face jail time after judge allows book on White House tenure to proceed appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The post Trump adviser Navarro blasts John Bolton’s ‘silly’ China claim appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>White House trade adviser Peter Navarro fired back at John Bolton on Sunday, seeking to rubbish a key claim in the former national security adviser’s bombshell new book, that Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for help in winning re-election.
“I never heard that,” Navarro said, echoing remarks by US trade representative Robert Lighthizer. “I was in the room.”
Bolton’s book, The Room Where It Happened, is based on notes taken in a series of rooms with the president, during Bolton’s spell as Trump’s third national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019.
“I hate the title of that book,” Navarro said. “But I was in those rooms too.”
A judge in Washington on Saturday declined the administration’s attempt to block publication, but had harsh words for Bolton’s conduct and treatment of sensitive material.
Trump indicated that a civil suit to seize all profits from the book will continue, and hinted at criminal prosecution.
One policy hawk attacking another, Navarro said in a combative appearance on CNN’s State of the Union: “That guy should be turning in his seersucker suit for a jumpsuit.”
He added a prediction that Bolton “will not only not get the profits from that book, but he risks a jail sentence. He has done something that is very, very serious in terms of American national security, and he’s got to pay a price for that.”
Bolton writes that direct quotes from the conversation with Xi were redacted from his book to satisfy its national security review. But Vanity Fair has since reported that during a dinner at a G20 summit in Japan in 2019, Trump told Xi: “Make sure I win. I will probably win anyway, so don’t hurt my farms … Buy a lot of soybeans and wheat and make sure we win.”
Navarro insisted the explosive allegation was “just silly”, because “this president has been the toughest president on China of any American president ever”, over unfair trade practices.
Bolton claims Trump’s request was evidence of impeachable conduct well beyond the approaches to Ukraine, for political dirt on Joe Biden, which eventually landed the president in court in the Senate.
Also on CNN, House judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler, who steered the impeachment inquiry, was asked to respond to Bolton’s charge that Democrats failed to build a case sufficient to remove Trump because they kept their focus on Ukraine.
“The fact is,” Nadler said, “the president could’ve been impeached on other grounds too, such as obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation. We chose to try to keep it simple.”
Bolton refused to testify in the House, then said he would in the Senate. Republicans controlling that chamber refused to call witnesses before acquitting the president.
Bolton, Nadler said, “is certainly no one to talk. He refused to testify before the House. And the Senate, of course, was never going to call him, because the Senate Republicans were not interested in any evidence. As I said, they were corrupt in that respect.”
The post Trump adviser Navarro blasts John Bolton’s ‘silly’ China claim appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The post British PM’s adviser defies calls to quit over accusations of flouting lockdown appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s closest aide defied calls to quit on Monday over accusations that he flouted a coronavirus lockdown by driving 250 miles from London to northern England.
Dominic Cummings, special advisor for Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, makes a statement at 10 Downing Street, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), London, Britain, May 25, 2020. Jonathan Brady/Pool via REUTERS
In a statement which he read to media in the Rose Garden of Johnson’s 10 Downing Street office, Dominic Cummings said he believed he had acted reasonably and had not violated the lockdown rules.
“I did what I thought was the right thing to do,” Cummings said in response to reporters’ questions after delivering the statement, which he issued in an open neck shirt. “I think…I behaved reasonably”.
Johnson had defended Cummings on Sunday, saying the advisor acted “responsibly and legally and with integrity” when he travelled 400 km (25 miles) in March from London to County Durham in northern England with his son and wife, who had symptoms of COVID-19, to be with relatives.
Cummings, who fell ill himself after the long drive, explained that he had wanted to ensure his four-year-old son could be properly cared for if he fell ill.
At the time, strict lockdown rules were in place and Johnson’s intervention backfired, with a growing chorus of critics questioning his own judgment.
Some lawmakers, bishops, scientists, doctors and police officers said Cummings’ apparent disregard for the rules imposed on everyone else had undermined efforts to control the coronavirus outbreak.
Cummings, 48, could still face pressure to quit despite his statement, and his departure would be a big loss for Johnson.
Cummings, who expressed no regret over the journey, helped Johnson win power last year and was the architect behind the successful 2016 referendum campaign to secure Britain’s exit from the European Union.
With a death toll of around 43,000, Britain is the worst-hit country in Europe and the government had already been under pressure over its handling of the pandemic.
Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Angus MacSwan
The post British PM’s adviser defies calls to quit over accusations of flouting lockdown appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The post Trump adviser compares China’s handling of coronavirus to Chernobyl appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>
National security adviser Robert O’Brien. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo
China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is akin to the Soviet Union’s response to Chernobyl, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, said Sunday.
“The cover-up that they did of the virus is going to go down in history along with Chernobyl,” O’Brien told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” referring to the 1986 nuclear disaster in Ukraine. “We’ll see an HBO special about 10 or 15 years from now.”
Asked about the implications of the pandemic for the new U.S.-China trade deal, O’Brien replied that “we’re in a very different world” from when negotiations first began.
“We want good relations with China and with the Chinese people, but unfortunately, we’re seeing just action after action by the Chinese Communist Party that makes it difficult,” O’Brien said. “With respect to the trade deal, we’ll see if they live up to it, but we’re dealing in a new world now with corona.”
“They unleashed a virus on the world that’s destroyed trillions of dollars in American economic wealth that we’re having to spend to keep our economy alive, to keep Americans afloat during this virus.”
Trump suggested earlier this month that he was considering abandoning the deal, signed earlier this year with great fanfare. His remarks came less than 12 hours after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He — and released a joint statement saying they were optimistic China would keep up its end of the bargain.
The deal requires China to increase purchases of U.S. goods and services by $200 billion above 2017 levels over the next two years. That includes $76.7 billion more in U.S. exports this year and $123.3 billion more in 2021.
Doug Palmer contributed to this report.
The post Trump adviser compares China’s handling of coronavirus to Chernobyl appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The post Trump adviser gives surprising response to historic oil plunge appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Fox News
Back to Top
©2020 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights scheduled. This product might not be published, broadcast, reworded, or rearranged. All market data postponed 20 minutes. New Personal Privacy Policy – New Regards To Use (What’s New) – FAQ
The post Trump adviser gives surprising response to historic oil plunge appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>