Obama ebola czar hits Trump virus response in Biden campaign video

Ron Klain, the former Ebola czar under the Obama administration, criticized the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in a campaign video for former Vice President Joe Biden. 

“Some countries acted quickly,” he said. “What did president Trump do? He downplayed it. Trump’s slow response to this crisis is no surprise.”

Klain noted that in 2018, Trump abolished the White House pandemic prevention office that was put in place by Obama.

Klain accused the administration of purposefully administering fewer COVID-19 tests so the numbers would be skewed, noting that other countries hit by the virus have had much more expansive testing efforts.

In a February White House press briefing, Trump repeatedly said he did not think an outbreak was “inevitable,” while Nancy Messonnier, the director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, described it as a matter of not “if” but “when.” 

Since then, Messonnier has made fewer appearances at the now-regular press briefings, which Klain said is an example of the administration’s rejection of the opinions of the scientific community. 

“The president and the White House sent a clear message to scientists in the government that there would be a price for speaking out and speaking up,” he said.

Since the outbreak, both Biden and his opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have released plans to combat the coronavirus and have had to adapt their campaigns to follow social distancing guidelines from public health officials.