MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough became mad Tuesday morning after reading a Washington Post report about how many briefings President Donald Trump had on the coronavirus threat in January and February, calling the president “oblivious.”
“Current and former U.S. official tells the Washington Post intelligence agencies prepared warnings about coronavirus in more than a dozen of the president’s classified briefings. This was back in January and February when he was still downplaying that threat,” explained “Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist.
Scarborough — shaking his head incredulously — picked it up from there, reminding viewers that numerous reports over the years have indicated Trump has little to no interest in briefings unless they are read to him, simplified and include his name frequently.
“You look, historically, and yes, there’s the question, ‘Did FDR miss the warnings signs about Pearl Harbor in 1941? Did George W. Bush miss the warning signs about 9/11 in 2001?’ Here we are in 2020 and it wasn’t just one or two warning signs. The lights were blinking throughout the month of January with even [economic adviser Peter] Navarro writing a memo to him saying up to 500,000 people could die and then in February he started talking about how it could cost millions of lives and trillions of dollars to our economy. This president, in the coming months, still remained oblivious to the threat.”
Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci — the infection specialist who is a key member of the Trump administration coronavirus task force — said lives would have been saved had social distancing and shelter-at-home mandates been made in February instead of March, there was “a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then.”
Watch above, via MSNBC.