Hugh Hewitt calls out 'very misleading' CBS clip about the Trump administration's early response to the coronavirus

Radio host Hugh Hewitt calls a video posted by CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ reviewing the Trump administration’s initial response to the coronavirus “very misleading.”

Very very misleading @margbrennan and @FaceTheNation. Earlier that same week @robertcobrien on my radio show said “It’s an incredibly dangerous virus. We’re meeting on it every day.” https://t.co/0ai5Pm1ZDk In the clip you play he says “right now no reason for panic.” https://t.co/taeZE1Mi7T

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) February 21, 2021

The clip features former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger confirming to CBS that the seriousness of the coronavirus threat was communicated to and heeded by then-president Trump during the onset of the pandemic last year. Pottinger even corrects host Margaret Brennan to clarify that Robert O’Brien (the national security adviser and Pottinger’s boss at the time) was the one who told the president that the coronavirus would be the greatest national security threat he would face.

As former National Security Adviser @robertcobrien told @facethenation last February that #COVID19 was of "low risk" to Americans, his deputy Matt Pottinger says he thought the virus was going to be "quite devastating, but we didn't have hard evidence of that" at the time. pic.twitter.com/JMgb3FfkSS

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 21, 2021

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Here is some of what O’Brien told radio host Hugh Hewitt last January, four days before speaking with CBS:

“It’s an incredibly dangerous virus. We’re meeting on it every day … And we’ll keep looking at things, but it’s, this virus is deadly, and it’s a matter of great concern to the President and to the administration.”

If the administration’s goal was to explain that they were treating the virus threat seriously while not stoking panic among Americans, it appears as if the messaging was consistent.

And as Matt Pottinger confirmed, O’Brien warned president. All three statements —to me, to you and most importantly to president— can be and were true. It is best practice to provide all of the relevant statements and explain, not provoke.

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) February 21, 2021

As Pottinger points out, it is important to remember the early action taken by the Trump administration:  “To the president’s credit, he decided to shut down travel from China.”

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