MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said on Tuesday that he doesn’t believe President Trump is taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure against the novel coronavirus, with the “Morning Joe” anchor warning against the use of the antimalaria drug.
“When the president of the United States actually says he’s doing something which, let me assure you, he is not doing. Let me assure you: The president of the United States is not taking hydroxychloroquine,” Scarborough said.
“In all the time that I knew him, I only sat for one meal with him,” he dded. “Before that meal, he had wipes like this high and would go through the wipes, compulsively, and wipe his hands, sanitize his hands before eating anything.”
“So he is not taking something that his own administration has said will kill you,” Scarborough continued before later evoking Neil Cavuto, a Fox News host who criticized the president for taking the drug.
“Listen to Neil Cavuto. It will kill you. This will kill you, Fox News’s Neil Cavuto said. That’s what doctors will say, too. The [Food and Drug Administration] said, take it if you’re in the hospital or take it if you’re in a closely watched, clinical trial. Don’t take it unless you’re under those two circumstances.”
The speculation from the former GOP congressman came after Trump revealed he has been taking the drug for the past week and a half.
White House physician Sean Conley contradicted Scarborough’s claim by confirming the president’s use of the drug. Conley said in a Monday evening statement that the “potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks” in prescribing the drug to the president.
Trump in a late-night tweet reacted to criticism from Cavuto and Fox News senior managing editor for health news, Dr. Manny Alvarez, who called the president’s decision “highly irresponsible.”
Trump declared that “Fox News is no longer the same” due to what he sees as “more anti-Trump people” at the network.