California governor said he needed to ask and thank Trump for help with COVID-19 response: report

White House officials told the California governor. Gavin newsomGavin Newsom Young people are increasingly driving the spread of COVID-19 California Governor says Orange County cannot reopen schools days after vote to reopen Live View: CA Gov Newsom offers coronavirus updates MORE (D) would need to personally appeal to President TrumpDonald John Trump, Pelosi and Blumenaur condemn Trump’s “heinous abuses of power” against Oregon protesters. Federal agents deployed in Portland had no riot control training: NYT Trump administration sought to block funding for CDC, contact tracing, and testing on new relief law: MORE report and thank you if you wanted help obtaining test samples for coronavirus, according to the New York Times.

The move was part of a deliberate decision by the Trump administration in mid-April, when the White House, deciding that the pandemic was in decline, decided that it had provided state governments with all the help they would need to manage any other outbreak, The Times reported. .

Deborah Birx, the lead coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, told authorities on April 11 that as Boston and Chicago approached their peak, other affected cities were on the other side of the crisis. Birx was consistently more optimistic than her colleague and friend Anthony FauciAnthony Fauci Young people are increasingly driving the spread of COVID-19. Fauci admonishes those mocking coronavirus guidelines: “You are part of the problem.” Twitter says 130 accounts targeted in this week’s cyber attack | Four fired, dozens suspended in CBP investigation on racist and sexist Facebook groups MORE, telling the task force that the virus had peaked in mid-April and appearing open to the idea that some death and hospitalization counts could be inflated.

Administration and state officials told the Times that Birx played a bigger role than was previously known in the White House public position that the virus was on the decline, and that the models it used for the assessment failed to capture Properly how Trump’s desire to quickly return to normal would undermine social distancing measures.

He frequently characterized the task ahead after saying the virus had peaked by “putting out the embers,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, and the president would later take it on. The working group proceeded assuming that the United States curve would reflect that of Italy, which turned out not to be the case.

Furthermore, the Times reported, the administration did not understand that its assessment of the spread of the virus had been incorrect until early June, and internal fissures remain in how much they should recognize in public.

Miami Mayor Francis Suárez (R), a survivor of the virus, told the Times that the White House was much more focused on reopening businesses than developing contingency plans for cities and states in the event of a resurgence.

“It was all based on downsizing, opening, downsizing, opening plus, downsizing, opening,” he told the Times. “Didn’t what ever happen if there is an increase after you reopen?”

White House spokesman Judd Deere defended the White House response to the Times, pointing to the president’s restrictions on travel from China and the signing of financial aid packages.

“President Trump and his bold actions since the start of this pandemic are in stark contrast to Democrats and the radical left who do nothing to simply complain, criticize, and condemn everything this President does to preserve this nation,” he said. to the Times.

The Hill has contacted the White House for comment.