USA Today issued an editor’s note to a recent op-ed by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro claiming that there were factual errors in the article.
The outlet posted the note to Navarro’s piece, which heavily criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is one of the leaders of the White House’s coronavirus response team, Wednesday evening, a little more than a day after the op-ed was published.
“Several of Navarro’s criticisms of Fauci — on the China travel restrictions, the risk from the coronavirus and falling mortality rates — were misleading or lacked context. As such, Navarro’s op-ed did not meet USA TODAY’s fact-checking standards,” said the editor’s note, which is signed by USA Today editorial page editor Bill Sternberg.
Navarro’s op-ed stirred controversy on Wednesday after the White House press office, chief of staff Mark Meadows, and President Trump himself all distanced themselves from the piece.
“The Peter Navarro op-ed didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone,” tweeted Alyssa Farah, White House director of strategic communications on Wednesday. “[Trump] values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration.”
The editor’s note said the opinion team reached out to Navarro for the opinion piece, seeking an “Opposing View” piece to be paired with their editorial, but claimed they did not know whether Navarro spoke with anyone else at the White House about it.
USA Today also published a “fact check” piece exploring five of Navarro’s claims.
Fauci responded to the op-ed saying, “I can’t explain Peter Navarro. He’s in a world by himself. So I don’t even want to go there.”
