- White House staffer defends President Donald Trump, who described the Food and Drug Administration as part of a “deep state” conspiracy that treats coronavirus development to influence the November presidential election.
- Meadows said in a “Fox News Sunday” interview that Trump “had the right to call out” the agency in a stroke of “unusual action.”
- Trump is expected to announce a “breakthrough” treatment for coronavirus Sunday night, which Meadows said on ABC’s “This Week” would place the “heat” on the agency, where “a number of people are those who do not see the same sense of urgency as he sees. “
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White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows defends President Donald Trump’s unconfirmed accusation that the Food and Drug Administration is part of a “deep state” conspiracy to halt the development of a treatment for the new coronavirus.
Trump took aim at the bureau on Saturday in a tweet, where he wrote that the agency “made it very difficult for drug companies to get people to test the vaccines and therapeutics” and “they obviously hope to delay the response until after November 3” . “
Dan Whateley of Business Insider previously reported that Trump has often used the term “deep state” to dismiss people and agencies around him as responsible for trying to obstruct his administration, and there is no evidence that the agency is developing treatments. or delays faxing in order to influence the presidential election.
Meadows said in an interview with Fox News Sunday that “bureaucrats” were to blame for the delays, and the White House was in favor of “cutting bureaucracy.”
“We are not going to cut corners on any kind of research we can do, but what we are going to do is cut the red tape,” Meadows said. “And what the president is specifically addressing is something I’ve been dealing with for the last three or four weeks is a real frustration among some of the bureaucrats to think that they can just do this as they normally do.”
White House official told host Chris Wallace that Trump “had the right” to call the bureau out in a stroke of “unusual action.”
“We face unusual times, which require unusual action,” Meadows said. “This president has the right to call it out, and I can tell you that the announcement that comes today must have been made several weeks ago.”
Although experts have said since the spring that treatment with a coronavirus vaccine would take until at least early 2021 to be safe for mass consumption, Meadows said Trump would announce a “breakthrough” coronavirus treatment Sunday night.
Meadows told ABC’s “This Week” in a Sunday morning interview that the announcement would place the “heat” on the agency, where “there are a number of people who do not see the same sense of urgency as he does.”
—This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 23, 2020
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany earlier showed the “breakthrough” in a tweet Saturday night, saying Trump would appear at a 6 p.m. news conference on Sunday with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn .
