For the first time ever, President Donald Trump has made a Twitter attack on Dr.Deborah Birx of the Coronavirus task force, calling her “pathetic”.
What we Know:
- The president made this tweet on Monday:
So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics. In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2020
- Trump tweeted this in reference to Dr.Birx’s recent interview with CNN in which she stated that the U.S. is “in a new stage” in its fight against COVID-19. Birx warned that neither rural nor urban areas are immune from the virus and citizens should take serious precautions to combat the spread of it, calling the virus “extraordinarily widespread”.
- Her comments come after Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, called Birx “the worst” in a closed meeting and, in an ABC interview, stated that she does not have confidence in the health professional or the information she promotes.
“I think the president is spreading disinformation about the virus and she’s his appointee. So I don’t have confidence there, no.” — Pelosi says she doesn’t have confidence in Dr. Birx pic.twitter.com/EyPV3MhyIN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 2, 2020
- Pelosi received notable push back for her comments, with White House Director of Strategic Communications, Alyssa Farah, making this tweet:
It is deeply irresponsible of Speaker Pelosi to repeatedly try to undermine & create public distrust in Dr Birx, the top public health professional on the coronavirus task force. It’s also just wrong. Period. Hard stop.
— Alyssa Farah (@Alyssafarah) August 2, 2020
- Additionally, in a recent New York Times article, Birx was accused of taking an overly positive stance on the status of the virus in the country and the efforts of the Trump administration.
- Since Pelosi’s statement, Birx has said that she has great respect for the Speaker and her dedication to the American people. Birx did, however, detest the claims of the New York Times article stating, “I’ve never been called pollyannish, or non-scientific, or non-data driven. I will stake my 40-year career on those fundamental principles of using data to implement better programs and save lives.”
- The president, who has been accused several times of making false claims in regards to the state of the virus within the nation, has been criticized by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, who took to Twitter to state, “It’s hard to believe this has to be said, but if I’m elected president, I’ll spend my Monday mornings working with our nation’s top experts to control this virus — not insulting them on Twitter.”
- In contrast, during a press conference on Monday, the president took a different stance on the leading health official, saying he has “a lot of respect” for Birx and he thinks Pelosi treated her “very, very badly.” A Trump aide said Trump had a “positive” meeting with Birx later that afternoon.
Dr.Fauci has shown his public support for Birx, saying that the kind of spread some states are experiencing is extremely difficult to contain, backing up her claims of the virus being “extraordinarily widespread.”
