Slavitt: Covid Was Worse than It Would Have Been Because Trump ‘Squashed Dissent’

‘There were a few things that the Trump Administration did that are very hard to get past’

EXCERPT:

SLAVITT: “Well, look, pandemics are hard, so if — if someone makes a real effort, is trying to help and makes a few mistakes, I think everybody forgives that. But there were a few things that the Trump administration did that are very hard to get past. One was, as we know, his ability to deny the reality of the virus which he did until such time as the NBA went out and the stock market went down was really dangerous, so his ability to deny really hurt us. If he had just said hey, we have a problem, we would've been in much better shape. And then he squashed all dissent. There’s a part of the book where Alex Azar, the head of Health and Human Services wanted to say the words on Fox & Friends that the virus wasn’t a problem but could deteriorate rapidly, and because of that, the White House pulled him from the show and banned him from doing media for 45 days. So here we are in the middle of a global pandemic and our Department of Health and Human Services isn’t allowed to talk to the press or the public. And there’s a number of examples like that, and I go through my conversations with Jared Kushner and with Debbie Birx, etc., which I think lets you see what’s going on in the inside.”

Video files
Full
Compact
Audio files
Full
Compact