WATCH: Reporters Confront Trump on Plans to Wind Down Coronavirus Task Force
Reporters confronted President Donald Trump this afternoon in Arizona over confirmed reporting that the White House is looking at winding down the coronavirus task force.
The president defended the level of testing the United States has done so far and said “the quality of our test is also the best.”
CNN’s Jim Acosta asked, “Don’t you need to continue to meet with the task force to get the scientific expertise?”
“We will have certain people,” Trump said. “As an example, we have hospitals that we built. We have medical centers that we built. We have people on the task force that focus on that. We have people on a task force that’s focused exclusively on ventilators… It’s a combination of safety and reopening. So we will have something in a different form. But the task force for what we’ve done, I think everybody out there, when they’re being very honest, I think the job we’ve done on testing will shortly be and maybe even supersede the job that we’ve done on ventilators which people can’t even believe.”
“Are you saying ‘Mission Accomplished’?” Acosta asked at one point.
“No, no, not at all,” Trump responded. “Mission accomplished is when it’s over.”
Another reporter asked, “Are you certain you will get the advice you need healthwise?”
“We had great people. We have great doctors. We have great medical people, laboratory people. I think tremendous progress is being made on vaccines, which everyone should be very happy to hear,” Trump answered.
He was also asked why he would wind down the task force now when there could be a resurgence of the coronavirus in the fall.
Trump said, “We can’t keep our country closed for the next five years. You could say there might be a recurrence and there might be. Most doctors are some doctors say that it will happen and it’ll be a flame and we’re gonna put the flame out.”
You can watch above, via Fox News.
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