Jake Tapper Grills Surgeon General on Trump’s Coronavirus Comments: Is He Trying to ‘Artificially Keep the Numbers Low?’

CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed Surgeon General Jerome Adams on how President Donald Trump and his administration have addressed the nation on the coronavirus.

Tapper noted that “the virus is spreading” as he asked Adams numerous questions about why various health officials currently say they are ill-equipped to handle the pandemic. Adams defended the government’s ground response throughout the country while saying they have changed their focus from containment to mitigation.

“You’re going to see more cases. Unfortunately, you’re going to see more deaths, but that doesn’t mean we should panic,” Adams said. “It means we should take the things that we know work for individuals to protect themselves and make sure everyone is doing those things.”

From there, Tapper asked Adams about multiple Trump officials who’ve spread “confusing information” while claiming coronavirus has been “contained.”

“So that’s not true, it’s not contained, it’s not relatively contained,” Tapper said. “Have you expressed your desire for people in the White House to share the facts and be honest?”

“This is a novel virus. It’s a new situation and the messaging, quite frankly, is hard,” Adams responded. “From a public health point of view, and I am a public health expert, the first thing you want to try to do is contain the virus, and some parts of the country have contained it.”

The conversation continued with Adams and Tapper going back and forth on how the coronavirus numbers keep changing, and how “life can’t stop,” according to Adams, despite ongoing public concerns. Adams showered praise on Trump’s personal health and sanitation, offering this recollection to Tapper:

“I was with the president on Friday and I said ‘Sir, when is the last time you washed your hands?’ He said ‘I washed his hands just minutes ago.’ We want to make sure folks are out there who are at risk, they’re taking extra precautions. But speaking of being at risk, the president, he sleeps less than I do and he’s healthier than I am.”

Eventually, Tapper asked Adams about Trump’s comments at the Center for Disease Control, where the president said he didn’t want thousands of people to disembark a cruise ship in California and be placed into quarantine because it would keep the U.S. coronavirus case numbers low.

“They would like to have the people come off. I would rather have the people stay. But I told them to make the final decision. I would rather – because I like the numbers being where they are. I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.

“Is the president’s desire to artificially keep the numbers low by keeping Americans who are off the coast out of the United States?” Tapper asked.

Adams said he didn’t want to “play politics” as he insisted that Trump and Vice President Mike Pence want “the best advice from [their] health experts” in meetings about the epidemic. Tapper pressed on by noting that “[Trump] said directly he doesn’t want to bring people in because the numbers will double. That’s not a medical decision, that’s a public relations decision.”

Watch above, via CNN.