Consistent Pattern: Navy Capt. Crozier Firing Another Example of Trump Ignoring or Silencing Coronavirus Warnings
Donald Trump failed to prepare America for the coronavirus. The reason? He ignored every warning sign his administration received and repeatedly eliminated those who would have warned him of the threats.
By relieving Navy Captain Brett Crozier of command this week, the Trump administration continued to follow that playbook. Capt. Brett Crozier was ignored and relieved of command after he raised concerns about an outbreak on his ship and the risks it posed for his sailors and their families.
“The firing of Captain Crozier, an American hero who should be honored for his courage, is the latest in a long line of examples of Donald Trump ignoring the warning signs, refusing to listen to the experts, and silencing those who tell the truth about the severity of the coronavirus pandemic,” said Zac Petkanas, Coronavirus War Room Director. “As a result, Trump failed to prepare the country for the virus and now Americans are needlessly losing their lives, hospitals are overwhelmed, and millions are without work.”
Examples of Trump Ignoring Warnings About Coronavirus
- In January, he ignored the classified briefings from his own intelligence officials warning him about the outbreak.
- He ignored a 2017 Pentagon report that warned of a novel influenza and the scarcity of resources like ventilators, personal protective equipment, face masks, and gloves it would cause.
- He ignored warnings of a global pandemic from the White House’s own Council of Economic Advisers in 2019.
- He failed to follow the National Security Council’s pandemic playbook, which he and his administration had been briefed on in 2017.
- His administration did nothing about an October 2019 report that the New York Times reported “drove home just how underfunded, underprepared and uncoordinated the federal government would be for a life-or-death battle with a virus for which no treatment existed.”
Examples of Trump Eliminating Those Who Would Have Warned Him
- Trump eliminated and didn’t replace the White House Global Pandemic Response team.
- He tried to cut the global health section of the CDC, laying off staff and closing 80% of epidemic prevention activities that were designed to combat public health crises like this one.
- He eliminated a key CDC position focused on detecting disease outbreaks in China and cut the staff at the Beijing office of the CDC by two thirds.
- The Trump Administration ended a pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to threats such as the coronavirus two months before the outbreak in Wuhan was thought to have begun.
- Trump complained to Secretary Azar that a senior CDC official who had warned of a likely pandemic was “scaring” the stock markets.
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