Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” White House adviser Peter Navarro downplayed the hubbub over President Donald Trump’s remarks a night earlier about testing.
Navarro told host Jake Tapper the comments were not intended to be taken literally.
Partial transcript as follows:
NAVARRO: Come on now, Jake, you know it was tongue-in-cheek. That was tongue-in-cheek, please.
TAPPER: I don’t know that it was tongue-in-cheek at all. He has said similar things for months.
NAVARRO: We’ve got over 30 million people unemployed and we’ve seen over 100,000 people die because of the China, Wuhan virus. Let’s talk about some serious issues, Jake. I don’t want to go there.
TAPPER: I think that testing is a very serious issue. I’m not the one making jokes about it. You’re the one that said the president was being tongue-in-cheek.
NAVARRO: Come on, it was a light moment.
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