Dr. Jonathan Reiner Offers Up Brutal Takedown of Scott Atlas’ ‘Reckless’ Tenure as WH Covid Adviser: ‘Other Than That It Was a Bravura Performance’
A former medical advisor to the Bush White House, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, offered up a scathing, point-by-point takedown of Dr. Scott Atlas’ brief tenure as Trump White House Covid advisor.
Speaking with CNN’s Don Lemon on Monday night, Reiner used the news that Atlas, who was a radiologist with no training in epidemiology, had stepped down from his role. Reiner then went on to review the many “reckless” policies Atlas had advocated after he jumped from appearing on Fox News three months ago to working for President Donald Trump in the White House.
“How much time was wasted here. How many needless deaths were there because of this kind of junk science?” Lemon pointedly asked of Reiner.
“I think it’s incalculable,” Reiner replied. “[Atlas] understood something that really resonated with the president. He understood that it’s easy to convince somebody that you’re right when you tell them exactly what they want to hear. That’s what he did with the president. He told the president exactly what he wanted to hear.”
Reiner then went to call out Atlas’ across a range of actions, including his push for a herd immunity policy to dealing with the coronavirus that could’ve resulted in millions more deaths as well as Atlas’ incitement for the public to “rise up” against Michigan’s Covid public safety mandates, not long after that state’s governor had been the target of a kidnapping and murder plot by anti-lockdown extremists.
The doctor also pointed out that Atlas repeatedly questioned the efficacy of mask wearing and actually had one of his tweets falsely claiming masks don’t work completely removed by Twitter. And just recently, Atlas gave an interview to RT, the Russian government-funded TV network, for which he later apologized.
“Other than that, it was a bravura performance,” Reiner drily concluded at the end of the long list of mistakes and misinformation.
“Right on, doctor,” Lemon said in response.
Watch the video above, via CNN.
