Connect with us

HIGHLY DOUBTFUL

Trump and McEnany Attack ‘Obama-Biden’ Pandemic Playbook as ‘Insufficient’ – Claim They Created a New Plan Years Ago

Published

on

President Donald Trump had his press secretary trounce the Obama administration’s pandemic preparedness playbook while claiming they created a “Trump style pandemic preparedness response plan” two years ago.

McEnany called the Obama plan “insufficient,” and a mere “paper packet.”

President Obama created an entire White House Office that focused on just preparing for pandemics, the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense. President Trump gutted that office, and ignored the plan that was created which would have sped up and improved Trump’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

“I just wanted to outline our pandemic preparedness,” Kayleigh McEnany, who joined the administration just five weeks ago, told reporters Thursday.

“The Obama-Biden plan that has been referenced was insufficient, wasn’t going to work,” McEnany said, holding up a bare few pages of paper.

The report is 69-pages long and reports show the Trump administration enacted several parts (whether knowingly or not) of it but weeks later than the plan directed. Those weeks were crucial and lives could have been saved were it not for their inaction.

“So what our administration did, under the leadership of President Trump was do an entire 2018 pandemic preparedness report,” McEnany said, holding up a binder with a graphic on the cover.

The Trump administration has never made mention of a 2018 pandemic preparedness report, nor is there any reference to it online until today.

“Beyond that we did a whole exercise on pandemic preparedness in August of last year, and had an entire after action report put together.” If true, that would literally be the very lowest expectation for any government office to fulfill. She did not say who was in charge of creating the 2018 report, or if anyone followed up on whatever findings of weaknesses were revealed in the after action report.

Related: White House Press Secretary Says Americans Should Be ‘Celebrating’ That ‘The President’s Healthy’

“In other words, the Obama-Biden paper packet was superseded by a President Trump style pandemic preparedness response plan,” McEnany declared.

There are several examples of the Trump administration co-opting original work from the Obama administration and rebranding it as their own. Among them, Melania Trump’s 2016 RNC speech, which some say was plagiarized from a Michelle Obama address.

Another example, via CNN fact checker Daniel Dale:

President Trump went on the claim his pandemic preparedness response plan was “much better, much more complete,” and “a lot tougher” than Obama’s.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.