House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is doubling down on her criticism of White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx for not challenging President Donald Trump over his false or misleading statements about the coronavirus.
During an appearance on CNN on Monday, Pelosi was asked about her criticism of Birx.
The House speaker said she had a discussion with members of the administration over the weekend on efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus. And she claimed that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows argued that “tracing isn’t a valuable thing; ‘we shouldn’t do it.’”
She continued:
“And I said, ‘Well that’s not what most scientists say.’ And they said, ‘Well, we’ll bring a scientist to say that.’ I said, ‘Well, make sure it’s not Dr. Birx,’ because I don’t have confidence in anyone who stands there while the President says, ‘Swallow Lysol, and it’s going to cure your virus.’”
“You know, it will kill you, and you won’t have the virus anymore,” she added.
CNN’s Jim Sciutto interjected to ask, “So you’re saying she hasn’t challenged the president’s disinformation enough?”
“Well, she stood there. I think that she has … that she has enabled,” Pelosi said, adding, “There has to be some responsibility, so if the president’s saying these things, who’s advising him that this is okay and enabling that to happen?”
Watch the video below:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that Dr. Deborah Birx has "enabled" President Trump: "I don't have confidence in anyone who stands there while the President says swallow Lysol and it's going to cure your virus" https://t.co/M0mUY58hqa pic.twitter.com/z1NxbP2LyN
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 3, 2020
Pelosi’s comments come after Birx pushed back against the House speaker’s criticism, as IJR reported.
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Birx said, “I have never been called pollyannish, or nonscientific, or non-data driven.”
“And I will stake my 40-year career on those fundamental principles of utilizing data to really implement better programs to save more lives,” she added.
President Donald Trump took to Twitter to criticize Birx for responding to Pelosi, as IJR also reported.
“So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines [and] Therapeutics,” Trump said.
So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics. In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2020
He added, “In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait [and] hit us. Pathetic!”