Monday on CNN, former Obama administration Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson reacted to President Donald Trump telling journalist Bob Woodward there was “nothing more could have been done” with regards to the coronavirus pandemic.
He also took a shot at Trump rallygoers for going maskless.
Johnson said, “To say that nothing more could have been done is absurd. Put aside what he said to Bob Woodward in February and March. By mid-April, here in the Northeast in the New York and New Jersey area where I live, the densest part of the country, we knew how to flatten the curve. We knew how to slow the spread of the virus through aggressive physical distancing, through hygiene, wearing masks, but after April, even though things slowed down here in the Northeast, we had the spikes in the rest of the country simply because our national leadership, our president, allowed this to become a political issue.”
He continued, “He set the tone for people believing that it is somehow politically incorrect to wear a mask, the rally that you showed a few moments ago that he’s about to attend is shocking to see so many people so close together with no masks. Some of them are older than me. They’re in vulnerable populations. And so this didn’t have to be this way.”
He added, “You have the nation on earth with the mightiest public health care apparatus the most dismal public health care response. It didn’t have to be this way.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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