Peter Navarro Slams Rick Bright: ‘A Deserter in War on China Virus’

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Thursday blasted Dr. Rick Bright as a “deserter in the war on the China Virus” for criticizing the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“He’s not just a disgruntled employee, in my judgment. He is a deserter in the war on the China virus,” Navarro said in an interview with Fox News’ Harris Faulker. “I am a conscript in the army, and before the virus hit I was doing trade deals to try and bring manufacturing home. We should be doing what we’re doing.”

Bright, the former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, testified before Congress on Thursday about the whistleblower complaint he filed and his view that the government has failed to come up with a national, coordinated response to Covid-19. He also reflected on warnings he received about the pandemic’s seriousness, his view of the dire, current situation, and he also defended his claim of being demoted from his job because he refused to back the administration’s promotion of untested coronavirus remedies.

President Donald Trump insulted Bright in the lead-up to Thursday’s hearing. Navarro added that he had corresponded with Bright over email, and said the White House’s coronavirus response accelerated after the correspondence. He also defended the White House’s pandemic response and mocked Bright’s “sky-is-falling warnings,” saying they weren’t “comporting with reality,” and added that Bright was “a disgruntled Obama employee.”

Watch above, via Fox News.