Biden Campaign Slams Trump Administration Over Interference with CDC’s Coronavirus Reporting: ‘Repugnant Betrayal’
OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP/Getty Images, Alex Wong/Getty Images
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign slammed the Trump administration over reports they interfered with the Centers for Disease Control’s reporting on the coronavirus.
On Saturday, the Biden campaign reacted to reporting that former Trump campaign official and current HHS official Michael Caputo has led an effort to interfere with the CDC’s reporting on the coronavirus in order to align it with President Donald Trump’s “optimistic” narrative.
In a lengthy statement emailed to Mediaite, Biden Communications Director Kate Bedingfield called the report a “repugnant betrayal,” and connected it to the revelations in tape recordings for Bob Woodward’s book:
“When Donald Trump told Bob Woodward that he wanted to downplay the virus, this is the exact kind of repugnant betrayal that he meant. Instead of telling us the truth about the deadly seriousness of COVID-19, this report is further proof that the Trump Administration has been systematically putting political optics ahead of the safety of the American people.
“Sadly, this is only the latest example of Trump’s refusal to be honest about this pandemic — even as the virus has taken nearly 200,000 American lives and has left our economy reeling and our schools shuttered. The middle class families feeling incredible financial strain because of Trump’s mismanagement aren’t looking for more political spin from the White House — they’re looking for real plans and real leadership on this crisis that Trump has shown himself totally unable to provide.
“Vice President Biden has said many times that if we level with the American people about the challenges we face, we can get through them together. But every step of the way, Donald Trump has concealed the truth for his perceived political benefit, in historic acts of malpractice — while failing to come to grips with the severity of this pandemic or the economic carnage it is creating, and refusing to be honest about what needs to be done to win this battle. Trump’s failure has left us with six million infected, millions more unemployed, and the worst outbreak in the developed world. We deserve so much better.”
In Politico’s reporting, Caputo defended the “interventions” by telling Politico that “Buried in this good [CDC] work are sometimes stories which seem to purposefully mislead and undermine the President’s Covid response with what some scientists label as poor scholarship — and others call politics disguised in science.”
