Monday, April 13, 2020

Potential big problem (we shall see). NY Times reporting on an answer to a question that I gave on CNN yesterday (see above). Jake Tapper asked me if we had closed down earlier, whould that have saved lives. I said it is complicated; he persisted and I said obviously, if you close earlier there would have been lives saved, but the decision was complicated. I could have answered the question better and with more clarity, but the Times is now saying that I was implying that the POTUS was to blame for additional deaths according to me. The far right is tweeting to fire me. The POTUS even re-tweeted the tweet that said to fire me. We shall see how the day goes……. I called up Marc Short and explained that I was answering a hypothetical question and I told the truth. Marc was very supportive and said the POTUS was not upset and understood. I met with VP – he called me to his office 15 minutes befor the TF meeting and we discussed this. He was terrific. I said I was angry at having been put into this position, I am completely apolitical, and I am loyal to the people that I work with. I offered to explain to the press at the daily White House press conference. Right before I walked in, I huddled with the POTUS and told him what I would do. He was very relieved and grateful saying that his right wing base is causing a lot of trouble and he was total OK with me. I went out and explained that I was being hoest in my answer to Jake, but that I was not implying that anyone was responsible for more deaths. I explained that the 2 times I recommended to the POTUS to go to ‘mitigation” (15 day, then 30 day) he took my (and Deb’s) advice and started to mitigation guidelines despite the fact that some people were pushing back (did not mention any names) Right after that, he went on an anti-media rage showing a filiming recently put together that day by staff showing how he was on top of everything and responded swiftly. Again, repetitive stream of consciousness. I was uncomfortable sitting there. Phone call with Jake Tapper. Jake wanted to make sure the interview did not cause me any problems. Global – 1,700,000/106,000; USA – 560,000/22,000; PRESS: C-SPAN TV;