George Stephanopoulos Grills CDC Director Over Trump Criticism on Schools: ‘Which Guidelines Are Too Tough?’
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pressed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield over President Donald Trump criticizing the agency’s coronavirus pandemic recommendations.
On Good Morning America, Stephanopoulos asked about Trump’s derision for CDC guidelines for reopening schools, as well as Vice President Mike Pence’s statement that the agency is making revisions “because the president thinks they are too tough.”
“Should the doctors and scientists at the CDC be taking that kind of political direction from the president?” Stephanopoulos asked.
Redfield said the CDC would provide “reference documents” to advise schools on safely reopening, adding “it’s not a revision of the guidelines. It’s just to provide additional information to help the schools be able to use the guidance that we put forward.”
“The vice president said it was a revision and doing it at the president’s direction,” Stephanopoulos countered. “Which guidelines are too tough? Which guidelines are impractical?”
“I think it’s important, George, to realize and you use the word guidelines — that’s what CDC has done. They provide guidances. They’re not requirements,” Redfield responded. This led to a back and forth between the two about how to achieve a safe reopening, which led to Stephanopoulos asking, “Are you revising any of those guidelines at the direction of the president?”
“Right now we’re continuing to work with the local jurisdictions to how they want to take the portfolio of guidance we’ve given to make them practical for their schools to re-open,” Redfield replied.
Stephanopoulos noted that Trump previously complained about the CDC’s business reopening guidelines, and since the country is seeing multiple spikes in Covid-19 cases, he asked Redfield “Aren’t you worried that is going to happen again?”
Watch the rest of the interview above, via ABC.
