Donald Trump recently claimed that he knew nothing about Barack Obama’s pandemic response team at the White House that has already been disbanded.
The POTUS came under fire in recent weeks for removing the National Security Council directorate at the Oval Office that’s responsible for planning the United States’ preparedness for future pandemics.
According to Political Flare, the National Security Council was created in 2014, during the Obama administration, after the Ebola outbreak.
After the coronavirus outbreak happened, the president was forced to create his own task force lead by Vice President Mike Pence. During a recent press conference, PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor asked Trump if he is taking responsibility for the disbanding of the White House pandemic office.
“You did disband the White House pandemic office, and the officials that were working in that office left this administration abruptly. So, what responsibility do you take?” Alcindor asked.
“I just think it’s a nasty question… I didn’t do it. We have a group of people… I don’t know anything about it. It’s the – it’s the administration. Perhaps they do that. You know, people let people go. You used to be with a different newspaper than you are now. You know, things like that happen,” Trump said.
However, the POTUS’s statement was very different from what he said in 2018. When asked why the pandemic team was removed from the White House, Trump suggested that there was no use for them.
“Some of the people we’ve cut they haven’t been used for many, many years and if we ever need them, we can get them very quickly and rather than spending the money. I’m a business person, I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them,” he said at that time.
Immediately after, the POTUS was lambasted on Twitter by his critics.
“Trump calls all women he doesn’t like ‘nasty,’” Twitter user @SharonCoryell3 said.
“He’s just a damn liar. It’s ridiculous that he’s denying that he shut down the pandemic response team,” Twitter user @dcpoll said.