CNN’s Tapper Confronts Kudlow for Claiming America ‘Contained’ the Coronavirus Back in February

CNN’s Jake Tapper put Larry Kudlow under pressure on Sunday by confronting the White House National Economic Council director with his false claims back in February that the coronavirus was “contained” in the United States.

Ever since the Trump administration dismissed the coronavirus’ seriousness during the pandemic’s early stages, Kudlow has drawn a great deal of flak for claiming two months ago that the virus was “contained” and would not sink the U.S. economy. Both assertions turned out to be false in hindsight, so as Kudlow spoke to CNN about the Paycheck Protection Program, Tapper eventually brought up the “disconnect” between health experts and those who want the economy to restart.

After rolling the footage of Kudlow’s February remarks, Tapper asked him “is there a disconnect between what people such as you who want things to be better than they are, so as to help the economy, are saying, and what people in the health field are saying?”

“For the umpteenth time I will say, my quote then was based on the actual facts which at the time there were only 40 or 50 cases and it was contained,” Kudlow responded. He continued by referring to the travel restrictions Trump placed on China months ago, though he did not mention the 40,000 people who were allowed to travel from China to the U.S. even after restrictions were put in place.

“Now, yes, some doctors were more fearful. Other doctors had many different things to say. I don’t want to get in and play this game, who said what and when,” Kudlow went on. “My quote was at that time, there were very few cases. Then, as the virus spread exponentially in ways that virtually no one could have predicted, of course we changed our mind.”

Kudlow continued by praising the administration’s “strong measures” while grumbling about the “ankle biting” in Washington.

“When the information changes, you change. We changed our strategy. So did everybody else around the world change their strategy,” he said. “So I’m just not going to accept that, Jake…We did what we had to do, as soon as the situation became much clearer.”

Tapper concluded by saying “I could respond with 15 minutes’ worth of stuff” to Kudlow’s monologue, but he had to move on to another interview with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Watch above, via CNN.