Ex-Trump Testing Czar Brett Giroir Dings Scott Gottlieb: He ‘Parachuted Out’ of the Administration ‘Before the Pandemic Hit’

Trump administration coronavirus testing czar Brett Giroir rebuked former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb for saying social distancing rules at the start of the coronavirus pandemic were “arbitrary.” Gottlieb also suggested that Trump’s exploitation of Covid policies as a political wedge issue “really hurt us.”

Giroir spoke to CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Monday for New Day, where he was asked about Gottlieb’s claims that the first Covid guidelines released by the CDC were not based upon actual science. Gottlieb also spoke of how the White House’s disputes with CDC on this matter set the stage for how many Americans lost confidence in decisions that were made to protect public health.

When asked for his response, Giroir said “I don’t remember any conversation in the Situation Room where 10 feet was discussed,” as Gottlieb claimed. He also disputed Gottlieb characterizing initial distancing guidelines as “arbitrary,” saying that officials had to make the most out of what data they had at the time.

“A lot of what we have in the pandemic is not written in stone, but it’s not arbitrary either. It’s based on your best judgment,” Giroir said.”I do think it’s important that public health recommendations need to be operationalized, they need to be doable by people. If you tell them you need to be 5.76 feet away from someone, that doesn’t make sense. It has to be operational. Six feet is something that people can understand. It matched the data. And I think the CDC made a reasonable recommendation based on that.”

Keilar ran back to the core of the matter by asking if Giroir disagrees with Gottlieb’s claim that the CDC’s recommendations were “a political decision, not a scientific one.”

His answer:

I never heard the 10 feet mentioned in the Situation Room. Scott was certainly not in the Situation Room. He parachuted out of the administration before the pandemic hit. He may have that information. I’m telling you I never heard that information. There was never a topic of discussion where the politics would have happened in the Situation Room with the vice president, the president. It was always six feet. I never heard the 10 feet number. That’s just my experience.

Watch above, via CNN.