Josh Earnest: The GOP Is Politicizing Our Choice for Ebola Czar? ‘Stop the Presses’

LEDERMAN: “Josh, the President’s choice to be the point man on running the Ebola response, Ron Klain, is already coming under some criticism from Republicans on Capitol Hill who are saying —“
EARNEST: “That’s some shocking development, isn’t it?” (Laughter)
LEDERMAN: “I know it’s not something you ever anticipated.” [crosstalk]
EARNEST: "What did it take — it’s like three weeks before an Election Day and Republicans are seeking to score political points. Stop the presses.”
NN SPEAKER: “Come on, you’re bringing us down. You’re bringing down the mood. (Laughter)
EARNEST: I’m trying to keep up mine.”
LEDERMAN: “I guess you beat me to the punch, but do you think that they’re scoring political points as opposed to there being any legitimate questions about whether it might be smart to have someone with some element of medical or public health expertise as opposed to a kind of a government insider to be running this kind of an operation?”
EARNEST: “Well, I think you’re asking a good question, which is what kind of person is appropriate to fill this role. The fact of the matter is, this is much broader than just a medical response. The response that you’ve seen from the administration is a whole-of-government response to ensure we’re leveraging the necessary resources to protect the American public. So as I mentioned earlier, USAID and the Department of Defense, in addition to CDC, have been involved in responding to the outbreak in West Africa. You’ve seen the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol play their important role in this effort, which is to monitor our borders and screen passengers from airplanes who are entering the country. There are additional screening measures that the Department of Homeland Security put in place just within the last couple of weeks to make sure that we’re protecting the American public. There’s an important role to communicate with state and local leaders, including public health officials, to protect the American public. There is a significant medical component here as well, of course, but it’s not solely a medical response. That’s why somebody with Mr. Klain’s credentials, somebody that has strong management experience both inside government but also in the private sector. He is somebody that has strong relationships with members of Congress and obviously strong relationships with those of us who worked with him here at the White House earlier in the administration. All of that means that he is the right person for the job, and he is the right person to make sure that we are integrating the inter-agency response to this significant challenge.”