President Donald Trump’s move to close down the coronavirus task force has sparked a backlash from top Democratic officials, who have called the decision a “colossal mistake” and “true American tragedy” amid the ongoing pandemic.
It was first reported by The New York Times on Tuesday that the Trump administration planned to close its coronavirus task force over the coming weeks, with the president telling reporters that the body would be replaced.
“Mike Pence and the task force have done a great job, but we’re now looking at a little bit of a different form,” President Trump said yesterday. “And that form is safety and opening. We’ll have a different group probably set up for that.”
Vice President Mike Pence also said the work of the White House task force could be passed on to existing federal agencies as early as the end of this month.
Reacting to the decision, former Democratic primary candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tweeted: “At a time when his own administration is predicting a significant increase in COVID-19 cases, our ‘stable genius’ president is winding down his coronavirus task force.
He added that the move was a “true American tragedy” and argued that thousands would die as a result of “Trump’s contempt for science.”
“Mark my words: this would be a collosal mistake—for which the American people will pay, first and foremost,” said ex-National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Twitter. “But so will the Trump Administration.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump at the 2016 election, tweeted: “It appears the plan is, shamefully, to have no plan. Americans will suffer. We must replace this administration in November.”
The Obama-era U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance also took aim at the president’s decision to roll back the coronavirus task force.
“Hard to believe even Trump is foolish enough to take a mission accomplished moment here,” she tweeted. “Heckuva job.”
Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) simply tweeted: “This is pretty nuts even for them.”
Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) tweeted: “Americans are suffering during this pandemic, but it can also get much worse without real leadership. The coronavirus task force should be expanded, not disbanded.”
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment and will update this article with any response.
“Reporting on the task force is being misconstrued to suggest the White House is no longer involving medical experts. This is totally false,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted on Tuesday night. “President @realDonaldTrump will continue his data-driven approach towards safely re-opening.”
Asked if he was saying “mission accomplished” by shuttering the coronavirus task force at a Tuesday press conference, Trump said: “No, not at all. The mission accomplished is when it’s over.”
The commander-in-chief revealed that the White House coronavirus task force would be wound down a day after it was revealed that a Federal Emergency Management Administration report projected daily coronavirus deaths roughly doubling to 3,000 by the start of June. It also projected that confirmed infections could rise by 700 percent to around 200,000 a day by the end of May.
According to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker, more than 1.2 million cases have been confirmed in the U.S. so far. The country has also reported 71,078 related deaths and 189,791 total recoveries.
The graphic below, provided by Statista, shows the ten U.S. states with the most confirmed coronavirus cases as of Tuesday morning.
The ten states with the highest numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. Statista
