The mainstream media does not let President Trump have one good day. Recently, pundits have been trying to attack Trump on issues related to the coronavirus. Along with criticizing his response to the epidemic, they have also criticized the President’s hopeful comments about the drug hydroxychloroquine, going so far as to connect Trump to the case of a man who drank fish tank cleaner. This week, ABC News and CNN claimed the National Center for Medical Intelligence(NCMI) warned the White House about the coronavirus outbreak in November of last year. The idea, then, was that President Trump acted foolishly in not dealing with the virus early on. The news outlets only cited anonymous sources to support this claim, but were glad to find an opportunity to bash the President. NCMI released a statement debunking this fake news. Col(Dr.) R. Shane Day, Director, National Center for Medical Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency, said: “As a matter of practice the National Center for Medical Intelligence does not comment publicly on specific intelligence matters. However, in the interest of transparency during this current public health crisis, we can confirm that media reporting about the existence/release of a National Center for Medical Intelligence Coronavirus-related product/assessment in November of 2019 is not correct. No such NCMI product exists.”
President Trump did in fact take early action to deal with the coronavirus. He restricted travel from China on January 31, even when Dr. Fauci of the National Institutes of Health(NIH) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) Director Robert Redfield did not believe the virus would be a major threat for Americans. At the time, the media criticized his travel ban, claiming it would be ineffective and hurt the economy. Conveniently, pundits changed their line of attack on Trump. When he took early action they criticized him, but now they are criticizing him for allegedly not acting early enough.
Still, there was only so much the United States, along with practically every other country, could do to prepare for the pandemic. We all had limited information because the Chinese government lied about coronavirus transmission, censored medical experts, and did not lock down Wuhan until it was too late. The media ought to blame China for the pandemic, but unfortunately, pundits will probably continue attacking President Trump and blaming him for everything.
