House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) slammed one of President Donald Trump’s leading COVID-19 experts, Dr. Deborah Birx, again on Monday morning, saying that the doctor has “enabled” Trump’s disinformation crusade during the pandemic.
“I don’t have confidence in anyone who stands there while the President says ‘Swallow Lysol and it’s going to cure your virus,”’ the Democratic leader told CNN anchor Jim Sciutto, jabbing at the infamous moment when Trump claimed during a press briefing in April that the virus could be cured by injecting oneself with disinfectant. (Birx, who was present at the briefing, was seen staring utterly flabbergasted at Trump in the background).
“So if the President is saying these things, who’s advising him that this is okay and enabling that to happen while millions of people have died?” Pelosi asked.
To the House speaker’s point about Lysol, Birx downplayed Trump’s astonishing remark amid the backlash and chastised the media for covering it.
“It bothers me that this is still in the news cycle, because I think we’re missing the bigger pieces of what we need to be doing as an American people to continue to protect one another,” the doctor said several days after the briefing. “As a scientist and a public health official and a researcher, sometimes I worry that we don’t get the information to the American people that they need when we continue to bring up something that was from Thursday night.”
Pelosi first publicly put Birx on blast on Sunday when ABC News anchor Martha Raddatz asked if she had confidence in the health official.
“I think the President has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee, so I don’t have confidence there, no,” Pelosi told Raddatz.
Birx pushed back against the Democratic lawmaker’s characterization of her on the same day in a CNN interview, stating “I have never been called Pollyannish or non-scientific or non-data-driven” and confirming that the virus is “extraordinarily widespread.”
Trump attacked Birx on Monday morning for her trouble.
“In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!” he tweeted.
Watch Pelosi below:
Pelosi doubles down on her criticism of Birx, says she "has enabled" Trump. pic.twitter.com/I7fRfxH6F3
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) August 3, 2020
