Daily US Times: US intelligence warned Trump in January and February as he dismissed coronavirus threat.
The Washington Post reported that the US intelligence warned Donald Trump in January about coronavirus outbreak, the president ignored.
The newspaper reported citing US officials familiar with the agencies’ reports and warnings. The warnings depicted the nature and global spread of the virus and China’s apparent downplaying of its severity.
It also focused on the potential need for government measures to contain it- while Trump opted to dismiss or simply not address their seriousness.
An official said to the Post on a condition of anonymity, “Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were- they just couldn’t get him to do anything about it.”
“The system was blinking red,” the official added.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and CIA declined to make any comment about the report, but White House spokesperson Judd Deere directed to fellow spokesperson Hogan Gidley’s comment to the Post.
Gidley told the paper in a statement, saying: “President Trump has taken historic, aggressive measures to protect the health, wealth and safety of the American people — and did so, while the media and Democrats chose to only focus on the stupid politics of a sham illegitimate impeachment.”
“It’s more than disgusting, despicable and disgraceful for cowardly unnamed sources to attempt to rewrite history — it’s a clear threat to this great country,” his statement noted.
The congressional intelligence committees were briefed on the threat coronavirus posed in January and February, according to a familiar source, who told CNN, but the intelligence reports did not predict when the virus might hit the US or recommend steps that should be taken in response.
The Post said the officials within the Trump administration tried in vain to convince him of the virus’s seriousness.
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