Hogan: Trump Wasted Months ‘Downplaying the Virus’

Monday on CNN, Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) said President Donald Trump wasted the early months of the coronavirus pandemic not taking it seriously.

Hogan said, “I’ve been really proud of the governors on both sides of the aisle for really stepping up and taking this pandemic seriously. I talk about that in the book. And I’m not just out trying to criticize the president, but I talk about the early stages of the pandemic when he wasn’t taking it seriously enough.?”

He added, “There certainly were a number of people like Dr. Fauci, Dr. Redfield, and others, who were making very serious arguments within the administration about why we needed to take certain actions. The governors were paying attention to that advice and the president. I think we wasted some time early on for a couple of months kind of downplaying the virus and not taking actions that needed to be taken, like developing a nationwide testing strategy, ramping up the production and availability of PPE, and developing a contact tracing program. So, I think are there have been some improvements. But there’s no question that some of the governors took it more seriously than the president.”

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