Fox News’ John Roberts Questions Mnuchin on Report Intel Agencies Warned About Coronavirus for Weeks

On Friday, the Washington Post reported that U.S. intel agencies were warning as early as January about coronavirus.

John Roberts – filling in on Fox News Sunday for Chris Wallace — asked Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin about the planned economic stimulus before raising that issue this morning.

“Were you over at the Treasury Department ever warned that something like this was coming down the pike?” he asked. “Because the initial White House reaction appeared to be, ‘Don’t worry, it’s over there in China, I was told, why do we need to respond robustly? Because there’s only 16 cases here.’ Were you ever warned early on by the intelligence committee that this was coming?”

Mnuchin said he wanted to be careful getting into “specific intelligence,” but said, “No one expected this to take off at the rate it did. And even as you know, I’ve now been on the task force listening to the medical professionals for a long period of time. I said a few weeks ago I felt comfortable traveling on commercial airfare. I did. The situation has changed very quickly.”

Roberts also brought up how Trump activated the Defense Production Act but “hasn’t put it into practice” yet, asking about the administration’s plans given the states in need of supplies. Mnuchin said he has “every confidence” in the president working with private industry to address this.

You can watch above, via Fox News Sunday