President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday evening that he wasn’t planning on firing Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar despite multiple reports on Azar’s impending ouster.
“Reports that H.H.S. Secretary @AlexAzar is going to be ‘fired’ by me are Fake News,” Trump tweeted. “The Lamestream Media knows this, but they are desperate to create the perception of chaos & havoc in the minds of the public.”
Azar is “doing an excellent job,” according to the President.
The secretary retweeted Trump and parroted his attacks on the press.
“The media continues to smear @POTUS and his Administration’s fight against #COVID19 and grossly overlook the historic whole-of-government response that we’ve been delivering under the President’s leadership,” Azar wrote.
The Wall Street Journal, Politico, and CNN all reported on Saturday that White House officials were looking to to give Azar the boot over his handling of COVID-19.
The officials reportedly believe Azar was behind news reports that he had tried to warn Trump about the coronavirus all the way back in January but was ignored Additionally, Trump reportedly yelled at at his HHS chief for making the administration look bad in its early response to the outbreak, according to the New York Times.
Trump notably did not appoint Azar to lead the White House COVID-19 task force, giving Vice President Mike Pence the job instead.
