Some members of Vice President Mike Pence’s Coronavirus Task Force were reportedly blindsided by his confirmation of talks to soon disband the pandemic team.
CNN’s Jake Tapper offered details about the discussions. According to Tapper, some members of the task force have confirmed that the information was not shared during the task force meeting earlier in the day Tuesday.
Some members learned of the possible disbandment through reports from journalists.
“A separate, knowledge source, sources, really, tell me this news of the task force closing down was not shared with the actual task force when it met earlier today,” Tapper said. “In fact, some members learned about the decision through journalists, not from the White House.”
His remarks come as the vice president confirmed to reporters on Wednesday that the White House is looking to wind down the task force by late-May. The president, however, said that both Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx would still be advisers after the disbandment.
See Tapper’s remarks below:
He continued to say that the decision to wind down the task force appears to be an effort to return to “semi-normal” in the White House despite the accelerated spread of the coronavirus and the rising death toll states are faced with due to reopening the country.
“The White House appears to be entering a period, right now, of hoping that everything will go back to semi-normal, despite the fact that the death toll and infection rates continue to grow,” Tapper added.
Later in the segment, Tapper spoke with CNN Political Correspondent Dana Bash and Dr. Sanjay Gupta about the possible disbandment. Both expressed deep concern about the decision.
Tapper noted the moment when the task force’s involvement seemed to diminish, referring to the media firestorm surrounding Trump’s “injecting disinfectant” remarks. The task force went from briefing every day to making very scarce public appearances.
He suggested that moment may have signaled the task force was already “living on borrowed time.” Bash agreed with the suggestion, noting the minimal number of times the task force has met since Trump faced backlash for his comments.
Gupta insists that the decision to wind down the task force could likely give Americans a “false sense of security” as if the pandemic is over.
“More than anything, I feel like these signals of the task force now being talked about disbanded and states reopening are giving a false sense that this is over,” Gupta said, adding, “It’s not.”
As of Wednesday morning, there are more than 1,238,000 positive coronavirus cases in the United States and the death toll is over 72,200.