Former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx is opening up about an “uncomfortable” phone call she had with then-President Donald Trump after she did an interview with CNN.
In an excerpt of an interview CNN’s Sanjay Gupta that aired on Sunday, Birx shared about a “very difficult time” she experienced in her role at the White House following an August interview she did with the network.
During that interview, she warned that, “Everyone who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus.”
“That was a very difficult time because everybody in the White House was upset with that interview and the clarity that I brought about the epidemic,” Birx said told Gupta of the response to that interview.
Watch the video below:
“I knew I was being watched. Everybody inside was waiting for me to make a misstep so that they could, I guess, remove me from the task force,” says Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator under fmr. Pres. Trump, on the pressures she faced. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/5zmR0P3SbN
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) March 28, 2021
When asked to share details about what happened after the interview, she said she received a call from Trump.
Gupta asked, “What did he say?”
“Well, I think you’ve heard other conversations that people have hosted with the president. I would say it was even more direct than what people have heard. It was very uncomfortable, very direct, and very difficult to hear,” Birx responded.
Gupta asked Birx if the president threatened her during that phone call.
Birx paused for a couple of seconds, then said, “I would say it was a very uncomfortable conversation.”
The interview is part of a two hour special set to air on Sunday focusing on the medical experts in the Trump administration and the response to the coronavirus outbreak.