‘Morning Joe’ Suggests Trump’s Promoting Hydroxychloroquine to Make Money
BRZEZINSKI: “Gene Robinson, you write in ‘The Washington Post’ the one word that proves why President Trump should not be president. What is it?”
TRUMP: “Hydroxychloroquine. The anti-malaria drug also used for autoimmune divisions that President Trump is touting as the magic bullet against COVID-19, as one of the greatest game-changers in the history of medicine, when his medical and science advisers tell him it’s definitely not that, that there is no evidence that it is. But that word, I said that encompasses the reasons why Donald Trump should never be president, because it shows how much about the way he makes decisions. He’s not listening to Tony Fauci, one of the world’s greatest experts in infectious disease. He’s listening to Rudy Giuliani and Peter Navarro, and other cronies of his who are telling him about this drug and they’re doing it based on anecdotes. A doctor friend of theirs said, ‘Boy, this is really effective, it really works. You should get behind that.’ And Trump has made up his mind that this is the solution to COVID-19, despite evidence to the contrary. This is the way he operates. This is Donald Trump in action.”
SCARBOROUGH: “Well, Peter Baker from ‘The New York Times,’ this is in the ‘Times’ this morning: Associates, and I’m quoting directly, associates of Mr. Trump have financial interest in the issue. Sanofi’s largest shareholders include Fisher Asset Management, run by Ken Fisher, major donor to Republicans, including Mr. Trump. A spokesman for Fisher declined to comment another investor in both Sanofi and Mylan, another pharmaceutical firm, is Invesco, the fund previously run by Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary. Mr. Ross said in a statement Monday he was not aware that Invesco had any investments in companies producing the drugs. As of last year, Mr. Trump reported that his three family trusts each had investments in a Dodge & Cox mutual fund, whose largest holding was in Sanofi. Gene?”
ROBINSON: “Yeah. Joe, as Deep Throat never actually said, follow the money. So two things are possible here. It is possible that Donald Trump is perfectly aware of these investments, and his potential stake in — in this drug, and that this is all deliberate. It’s also possible that he — he’s open to manipulation by friends and cronies, his billionaire Mar-a-Lago friends, who have these investments and who are pushing him in this direction. This is — you know, this is just not a man who is capable of rising to the challenge of this moment, and you see it every day.”
SCARBOROUGH: “Gene Robinson and John Heilemann. Thank you all so much. We will be right back.”
