Ex-Trump Aide Reveals Inside Story Of His Wild Disinfectant Press Conference

[DonViejo]

04/24/2021 03:01 am ET Updated 30 minutes ago

“You could see everyone looking around the room, saying, ‘Did he really just say that?’”

By Lee Moran

A former member of Donald Trump’s White House coronavirus task force has lifted the lid on what went down behind the scenes when the then-president talked on national TV last year about injecting disinfectant to combat the coronavirus.

“We’re in shock. You could see everyone looking around the room, saying, ‘Did he really just say that?’” recalled Olivia Troye, a former aide to then-Vice President Mike Pence, in a video released Saturday by the Republican Accountability Project, an anti-Trump conservative organization.

Troye said the task force on April 23, 2020, had wanted to communicate during its televised presser “that the mitigations and the 45 days to slow the spread had worked and the numbers had dropped.”

Link to tweet

But Trump got excited by a pre-press conference briefing from the Department of Homeland Security that showed “sunshine and cleaners could potentially reduce the number of hours that a virus can live on a surface.”

-snip-

more
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-task-force-disinfectant-briefing_n_6083b866e4b0ee126f66b399

[thucythucy]

1. And yet not one of them had the presence of mind

or the courage to walk up to the microphone and say, "Mr. President that's utter nonsense. It's also dangerous," and then turning to the camera, "Please please do NOT try injecting or swallowing or gargling with bleach. Right now our best options are masks and social distancing."

I don't know if I would have done that--could be people were so stunned as to be speechless.

But my recollection is that none of them came out in the following days to dispute this nonsense openly.

Which is a stain on all their reputations.

[Beatlelvr]

3. Exactly!

If Birx had jumped out of her chair, said in a strong voice, "No, Mr. Presudent. That is just ignorant. Are you seriously suggesting injesting bleach and other toxins, that could kill people? Why don't you let the people with actual medical degrees control this narrative? You know next to nothing about medicine." And yes, he probably would have yelled "You're fired!" But she would go down in history as a hero!

[central scrutinizer]

4. Birx will never recover from that sin of omission

Only possible defense would be she was struck dumb by the colossal stupidity on display and couldn’t respond quickly. If not, then the answer is cowardice.

[bullimiami]

5. smiling vapid sin of omission.

[gratuitous]

6. My thought precisely

I'll allow that in the moment, it was utterly paralyzing to watch that buffoon hold forth without an iota of understanding. But once the spell was broken and commentators were weighing in (many quietly and reluctantly while trying to "both sides" the spectacle), NOBODY from the administration uttered a peep against the ignorant and dangerous speculation by that idiot. And that, kids, is how 2020 became the worst year in human history for excess deaths.

[Chautauquas]

2. I was watching that conference

sitting in my chair and thinking "he's even dumber and more dangerous than I thought he was."

Scares me to think Americans are capable of allowing someone like him to attain the Presidency.

[Grins]

7. 74 MILLION of them!! NM

[Akacia]

8. Too bad he did not demonstrate to his audience how to do it. nt.