It’s time to leave the precautionary measures against COVID-19 to the experts, President Donald Trump conceded on Monday.
During a rambling, meandering interview on “Fox and Friends,” Trump explained his decision to push the social distancing guidelines to April 30 instead of Easter, as he had originally planned.
“I listened to experts,” said Trump, citing doctors Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, the two leading health officials on his White House coronavirus task force.
Later in the interview, Trump told the Fox News co-hosts he would take heed to Fauci and Birx’s recommendations in the future when determining how long social distancing ought to continue.
“Well, I’ll use my head and I’ll make a decision, but I’m going to rely on experts,” Trump said after co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked if he would consider extending the social distancing guidelines after April 30 if necessary.
“Anthony and Deborah have been doing this for many years, and I’m going to rely on them,” he said.
Trump repeated again that the “worst thing we can do” is “declare victory and then not have victory and then have to do it all over again.”
Fauci described to CNN “New Day” host John Berman on Monday the process of persuading Trump against lifting the guidelines too soon, saying that he and Birx had “made it very clear” to the President that doing so would be catastrophic.
“Dr. Debbie Birx and I went in together in the Oval Office and leaned over the desk and said ‘Here are the data, take a look’” the doctor told Berman. “He looked at them, he understood them and he just shook his head and said ‘I guess we gotta do it.’”
Watch Trump below:
Trump says he'll "rely on experts" when it comes to deciding on social distancing guidelines. pic.twitter.com/QQsRpjYSdV
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) March 30, 2020
