Trump’s election challenges are distracting from COVID’s response, White House adviser told colleagues

[ad_1]

WASHINGTON White House officials are prioritizing former president Donald Trump’s attempt to challenge the election in a pandemic response last winter, according to emails obtained by the House select subcommite investigating the government’s coronavirus response and shared with The Washington Post.

Steven Hatfill, a virologist who advised White House trade director Peter Navarro and said he was closely involved in the pandemic response, repeatedly described in emails how “election things” preceded in coronavirus, though, the outbreak climbed to more than 250,000 new coronavirus cases each day in January.

“Now that the election is near, COVID is taking a back-seat, but the pain is growing here[s] ugly head again, “Hatfill wrote to an outside colleague in October 2020. Following the election, which was disputed by former president Donald Trump, Hatfill wrote in another email that he himself had” moved on to the fraud investigation in elections in November. “

In other emails the subcommite received, Hatfill further detailed his role in the White House election challenges, including traveling to Arizona after that state’s upcoming election, passing a “Plan B for the Trump Legal Fight ”and sharing Joe’s debunk rumors The Biden family’s supposed relationship with a polling company.

Asked in a Jan. 5, 2021, email by a colleague at George Washington University why he wasn’t “fixing the virus,” Hatfill blamed the election dispute, writing, “Because the election thing is out of control. I go where my team goes, ”citing his own efforts to help challenge the outcome of the Nevada election.

The emails obtained by the subcommite also show Hatfill directly contacting senior officials at the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration, in addition to representing the administration in dealing with care companies. health.

“The President has seriously mismanaged the COVID Task Force in proper pandemic response to COVID-19,” Hatfill wrote in a letter on Sept. 22, 2020, to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Hatfill listed a series of alternate recommendations, including proactively providing untested virus treatments such as hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug favored by Trump.

The Democrat-led panel on Thursday issued a subpoena to Hatfill, asking him to turn over the documents the subcommite first requested in April and punished him for minimizing his role in response. White House.

“Dr. Hatfill refused to provide documents and falsely downplayed his involvement in the pandemic response to communications with Select Subcomm Committee staff, ”House Majority Whip James Clyburn, DS.C., who heads the subcommite, wrote in a memo to colleagues shared with The Washington Post.

Clyburn also criticized the Trump administration’s decision to classify Hatfill as an unpaid volunteer, saying it raises “serious questions” about whether the administration seeks to circumvent transparency and ethics rules.

In a statement, Hatfill defended his involvement in the election challenges, saying it was driven by his grief about the federal official’s handling of the pandemic response.

“From my perspective as a Doctor, I have, and continue to, fail at public health being treated as a political football,” Hatfill wrote in response to questions from The Post. “Moreover, I am disgusted with the destruction of the National Pandemic Plan at the hands of dissenting petty bureaucrats; a plan focused on early treatment and community outreach, rather than experimental vaccines and panic attacks,” he added. by Hatfill, a reference to his belief that officers incorrectly restricted access to hydroxychloroquine.

“I was asked to serve in the Executive Office of the President of the United States in a time of severe crisis. I accepted this call without reservation, and will do so again, regardless of the political affiliation of the Executive Branch,” Hatfill added.

Navarro and a spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Attempts to reach the Meadows were unsuccessful.

Through his own public account, Hatfill played a key role in the Trump administration’s pandemic response.

Show caption

“From February 3, 2020 through the post-inauguration transition period in 2021, I had the duty to provide almost daily outside scientific considerations to the Executive Office of the President of the United States. This work has included thousands of hours of unpaid work, ”Hatfill wrote in an article published on his website this year.

In emails to colleagues once sent via ProtonMail, an encrypted email service used by Hatfill, Navarro and other Trump officials in messages obtained by Democrats given the virologist’s detail in his duties, including his working up to 18 hours per day, set out in the White House.

Before the outbreak erupted in the United States, Hatfill issued presence warnings in February 2020 that government “critical mistakes” such as a failed launch of coronavirus tests designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would ruin the early response to the virus. He also repeatedly urged Navarro, a close adviser to Trump, to quickly take tests and supplies, and he helped write memos that reached the president.

But the documents also describe how politics determined Hatfill’s view of the pandemic.

“Trump-favorable states have lower COVID Case Fatality Rates,” Hatfill wrote in a Sept. 19, 2020, email to a White House official, indicating that the information should be highlighted.

As demand for face masks rises, Hatfill also dismisses opportunities to buy N95 or KN95 masks that are available overseas. “Nothing is non -US based,” Hatfill wrote in an email on March 27, 2020.

Show caption

In his emails, Hatfill repeatedly targeted Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert, and then FDA Commissioner Steven Hahn, whom he blamed for opposing the widespread use of contraceptives. -malaria medicine.

“I actually lost it and told Fauci that he was full of trash a few weeks ago,” Hatfill wrote in a Sept. 3, 2020, email.

“Two members of the COVID-19 Task Force (Drs, Fauci and Hahn) need to be replaced by an immediate multidisciplinary team of physicians and public health experts who are actually experienced in drug operation,” Hatfill urged Meadows in a letter about two weeks later. Neither man was removed from the task force but both were increasingly sidelined by Trump.

Fauci said he was unaware of Hatfill’s efforts to replace him on the task force. Hahn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hatfill, a virologist and former Army biodefense researcher, first attracted national interest after Attorney-General John Ashcroft called him a “person of interest” in the 2001 anthrax attack. Hatfill subsequently cleared any wrongdoing and won a $ 5.85 million settlement from the Justice Department in 2008.

The scientist, listed as an adjunct assistant professor at George Washington University’s medical school, was sometimes amazed at his achievement of fortune, including his newly found closeness to Trump.

“‘Person of Interest’ has been a WH advisor for 20 years,” Hatfill wrote in an email exchange in February 2020, adding that “he helped draft a memo for the big D last night.” “In America only LOL.”

This story was originally published on washingtonpost.com. Read it here

[ad_2]