If you watched President Trump’s briefing with his coronavirus task force on Wednesday, you heard questions about an ABC News report that warnings were sent as early as last November about a potential pandemic looming in Wuhan, China.
ABC News was all over it:
Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sources – @ABC News. The National Center for Medical intelligence findings on Coronavirus in China briefed to White House and military officials in 2019. What was done in response? https://t.co/PBgxOLAlrK
— GeorgeStephanopoulos (@GStephanopoulos) April 8, 2020
BREAKING @ABCInvestigates — Intelligence reports warned of #coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sourceshttps://t.co/Z2oMKGCCW1
Story by @joshmargolin & @meekwire
— James Gordon Meek (@meekwire) April 8, 2020
Resistance champs Bill Kristol and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough ran with the story as well:
“From that warning in November, the sources described repeated briefings through December…All of that culminated with a detailed explanation of the problem that appeared in the President’s Daily Brief of intelligence matters in early January…” https://t.co/anchldCG9S
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) April 8, 2020
The White House was warned repeatedly in November & December 2019 that the US military's National Center for Medical Intelligence concluded the outbreak in China could be a “cataclysmic event”.
“I would view it as something that surprised the whole world.”
~Trump, 3/19/20— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) April 8, 2020
However, after that narrative started spreading like wildfire, the Defense Intelligence Agency later came out and dumped cold water on that report:
JUST IN: Director of DIA’s National Center for Medical Intelligence issues rare, unrequested statement regarding COVID. pic.twitter.com/tCw0GRchJ6
— W.J. Hennigan (@wjhenn) April 9, 2020
Has it gotten so bad that even the people that never call “fake news” on anybody can’t help but call “fake news” on what’s being reported these days?
ABC News cited two “sources” today saying that Trump had received an intel briefing in November 2019 warning of an impending #coronavirus pandemic.
Now, their “sources” have been debunked.
Journalists need to care about getting the facts more than they care about getting Trump. https://t.co/Pc3Sv08ycB
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) April 9, 2020
Pentagon issues a statement on the ABC News report that the National Center for Medical Intelligence produced an assessment on coronavirus as early as November: “No such NCMI product exists.” pic.twitter.com/MdV3jaJxm5
— Kristina Wong ?? (@kristina_wong) April 9, 2020
1) Insanely rare for intelligence agencies to come out and publicly dispute a story. Suggests ABC News really failed to do their due diligence.
2) ABC story made 0 sense bc the public timeline makes it unlikely even China was aware of an "out-of-control disease" in November. https://t.co/YmD1BsaLi2
— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 9, 2020
This is a massive, massive f— up by ABC News. Holy cow. https://t.co/ncGd4qnXk8
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) April 9, 2020
Color us shocked!
A defense official on Wednesday issued a rare denial of reports by ABC News and others that claimed a November intelligence assessment warned about a rapidly spreading coronavirus in China that posed a threat to American forces in the region.
The official said no such assessment existed.
ABC News cited unnamed officials with knowledge of the assessment by the military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) that raised concerns of the coronavirus and highlighted how it was disputing daily life and business in the area.
Hmmm….
https://t.co/LO5jjhSYaA So ABC is lying?
— Thor’s Cousin. (@GeoffUtley) April 9, 2020
Well… let’s just say the media hasn’t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt these last few years.
And once again the #FakeNewsMedia just makes up today’s headlines.
— v (@vvt7777) April 9, 2020
Fake News strikes again. They’ve learned a new tactic, just push out the fake stuff, it will always get a bigger reach then any retraction. They use it strategically now
— Me (@marathonman2019) April 9, 2020
How many damn times does this have to happen before it stops? https://t.co/T4k5FpNop0
— Wesley J. Smith (@forcedexit) April 9, 2020
I was pretty skeptical of the ABC story, now even more so.
1. China didn’t identify the virus until 1st wk Dec, suspected contraction Nov. 17.
2. Abc dressed the headline to make it seem like Trump was warned in Nov, then buried that his office wasn’t briefed until January. https://t.co/YcR01RsBV9 pic.twitter.com/0nD7SvF68X
— Geoffrey Ingersoll (@GPIngersoll) April 9, 2020
This biggest giveaway that ABC News' report was garbage and not true was the fact that they would not give a specific date about when in "early January" Trump was made aware of the report https://t.co/Io0FEdBtir
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 9, 2020
All of those ‘mistakes’ always seem to only go one direction….,??♂️
— ?Del Paxton’s Piano? (@Mark_Derr) April 9, 2020
Weird how that works, isn’t it?
Even the ABC Story, which has now essentially been debunked, didn't claim that the info was in the Presidential briefing until January.
Maybe read the story next time, Joe? https://t.co/NSG8Ft0MbY
— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 9, 2020
For some reason we’re guessing that the next anti-Trump story that comes around the bend will be automatically believed no matter what.
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