Democracy Dies in Darkness

Trump downplayed drumbeat of intelligence warnings on covid, report finds

The intelligence community repeatedly warned the president in early 2020 about the impending pandemic, a Democrat-led House committee report notes.

By
December 15, 2022 at 4:31 p.m. EST
President Donald Trump, with Vice President Mike Pence, and the rest of the coronavirus task force, speaks about covid-19 in the briefing room at the White House on Monday, March 9, 2020. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
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Beginning in late January 2020, U.S. intelligence agencies reported to senior Trump administration officials that the coronavirus spreading in China threatened to become a pandemic and spark a global health crisis.

But then-President Trump’s public statements over the next two months “did not reflect the increasingly stark warnings coursing through intelligence channels,” including the president’s daily brief, available to Trump and senior members of his administration, according to a report issued Thursday by the House Intelligence Committee.