Rep. Eric Swalwell declined the opportunity to take a shot at President Trump and his administration’s response to the coronavirus when given the opportunity to do so.
The California Democrat discussed the United States’s preparation for the coronavirus outbreak in a Thursday interview with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, which came a day after President Trump put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of coordinating efforts against the outbreak in a move that prompted backlash from a multitude of Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Wallace began by saying that “it used to feel like a Democratic attack line to say that Trump and Pence were against science” before saying their record should cause concern. The host referenced the president’s reaction to Hurricane Dorian, which involved a controversy surrounding a map of the storm’s trajectory that was altered with a marker, as well as relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
“What is your degree of alarm, and what is your plan to help and support the public health efforts?” she said.
“I think, because we are dealing with a pandemic here that could become a real crisis in America, we want to give the president and the vice president all the resources they need and the support they need and root for their success because their success is our success,” Swalwell said.
“So, I will resist, you know, pointing out some of the flaws, I think, in the people who have been appointed, and just say that, as of the member of the House leadership team, we are standing ready, waiting to work with the White House to give them the funding they need and to also support the investments in detection, the ability to support local hospitals to quarantine and contain and also to have a vaccine as soon as possible,” he continued.
“I think everybody is coming at this as an American or as a parent or as a daughter or a son,” Wallace responded. “But what about what you’ve seen either furthers your hope and optimism or gives you something to sort of keep an eye on?”
“In the House leadership and on the House side, we have a number of doctors and nurses,” he said. “Yesterday, I was speaking with [Rep.] Lauren Underwood from Illinois. She was a nurse. She worked in the Obama administration. She brings a perspective to this that I found quite helpful and constructive, and, again, it’s in all of our interests for the president to be successful in working to combat this.”
The global outbreak has infected tens of thousands and led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people, and there have been 60 confirmed cases in the United States thus far. Trump has requested $2.5 billion in funding to help contain and treat the illness. Pelosi, however, called the ask “long overdue and completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency.”
