While Donald Trump was busy downplaying concerns about the coronavirus, saying it was under control and even dismissing it as a “hoax,” U.S. intelligence agencies were warning him of just the opposite.
“Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were — they just couldn't get him to do anything about it,” one official told the Washington Post, for a bombshell report published Friday night. “The system was blinking red.”
From WaPo: U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February about the global danger posed by the coronavirus while President Trump and lawmakers played down the threat and failed to take action that might have slowed the spread of the pathogen, according to U.S. officials familiar with spy agency reporting. The intelligence reports didn't predict when the virus might land on U.S. shores or recommend particular steps that public health officials should take, issues outside the purview of the intelligence agencies. But they did track the spread of the virus in China, and later in other countries, and warned that Chinese officials appeared to be minimizing the severity of the outbreak. Taken together, the reports and warnings painted an early picture of a virus that showed the characteristics of a globe-encircling pandemic that could require governments to take swift actions to contain it. But despite that constant flow of reporting, Trump continued publicly and privately to play down the threat the virus posed to Americans.
Watch a timeline of Trump's response to the coronavirus below.
