Ron Klain Calls Out VP Pence, CDC Director for Dismissing CDC’s Own Guidelines When Reopening Schools: Déja Vu All Over Again’

Former Obama White House Ebola czar Ron Klain called out Vice President Mike Pence and CDC Director Robert Redfield for openly dismissing the CDC’s own public health guidelines in the White House’s push to reopen schools in the next two months.

During an appearance on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, Klain spoke with host Nicolle Wallace about the surreal approach the Trump administration is taking by so publicly compromising its own public health expertise to ensure schools return to normal this fall. The absurd contradictions were apparent on Wednesday during one of White House’s now-rare coronavirus task force briefings, when Pence clearly downplayed the public health value of the CDC’s reopening guidelines issued earlier this summer — as the CDC director was standing right next to him.

Wallace began by playing a clip of that bizarre moment, which concluded with the CDC director saying: “What is not the intent of CDC’s guidelines is to be used as a rationale to keep schools closed.”

“I mean, what other reason would a school not open up, other than, it hadn’t met” the guidelines, a clearly dismayed Wallace said. “States didn’t open up — or states that did open up in defiance of the CDC guidelines are now surging and spiking. We have three states that are the world record holders of new Covid cases.”

“You’re exactly right. I think this is such an important point,” Klain responded. “This is déja vu all over again to what happened in April. In April, the CDC put out guidelines on how to reopen businesses, when to reopen, stages to reopen. Dr. [Anthony] Fauci went to the White House briefing room and said, here’s our plan on April 16th. The next day, Trump tweeted, ‘LIBERATE MICHIGAN,’ ‘LIBERATE MINNESOTA.’ Basically, was egging states on to ignore his own administration’s guidance.”

“The consequence of that has been, not only soaring cases of the disease, but really a hit to the economy in those states where people are not going to businesses, not going to restaurants,” Klain pointed out. “Now, Trump’s intent on repeating that all over again with the schools. He should say: ‘These are the guidelines, people should follow them, we at the federal government will help you pay for it.’ It’s a crime that we tell teachers in America that they have to buy their own chalk for their classrooms, that they have to buy their own school supplies for the classroom. Now we have to tell them they’re going to have to buy their own Ppe to teach, their own sanitizer, buy their own deep cleaning supplies for their classrooms?”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.