Reports Contradict the President’s Repeated False Statements
Washington, D.C. (August 31, 2020) — Today, Rep. James E. Clyburn, Chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, released eight weeks of White House Coronavirus Task Force reports obtained in response to the Select Subcommittee’s July 29, 2020, request to Vice President Mike Pence and White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx.
These reports—which the White House sent privately to states but did not disclose to the public—directly contradict the Administration’s rosy public statements downplaying the threat of the virus.
“The Task Force reports released today show the White House has known since June that coronavirus cases were surging across the country and many states were becoming dangerous ‘red zones’ where the virus was spreading fast,” said Chairman Clyburn. “Rather than being straight with the American people and creating a national plan to fix the problem, the President and his enablers kept these alarming reports private while publicly downplaying the threat to millions of Americans.
As a result of the President’s failures, more than 58,000 additional Americans have died since the Task Force first started issuing private warnings, and many of the Task Force’s recommendations still have not been implemented. It is long past time that the Administration finally implement a national plan to contain this crisis, which is still killing hundreds of Americans each day.”
_______________________________________________________________
Here is one example:
The eight White House Coronavirus Task Force reports released today were issued from June 23, 2020, through August 9, 2020.
These reports contradict contemporaneous public statements from Administration officials downplaying the severity of the coronavirus crisis:
On June 16, Vice President Pence claimed in an op-ed that “panic” over a resurgence of coronavirus infections was “overblown.”
But on June 23, the White House Task Force concluded that seven states were in the “red zone,” indicating the highest risk of coronavirus spread.
The Task Force found new cases were up
70 % in Arizona,
72 % in Texas,
87 % in Florida,
93 % in Oklahoma
134 % in Idaho.
14 states that have been in the “red zone” since June 23 have refused to impose statewide mask mandates per Task Force’s recommendations—including states with severe case spikes like Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
2 states—Iowa and Nebraska—have attempted to ban local jurisdictions from imposing mask mandates, and Georgia only recently reversed a similar ban and dropped a lawsuit aimed at invalidating mask ordinances instituted by the city of Atlanta.
The Administration has also refused to make the Task Force’s reports and recommendations available to the public. Instead, the Task Force has privately issued the reports to states and held periodic calls and meetings with state and local officials that are closed to the public.
The Task Force’s reports also have been kept secret from some local government and public health officials who need them.
Click below to read the Task Force’s reports released today:
