Fox News anchor Bret Baier disparaged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Trump administration over mistakes made at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Baier provided a critical analysis of the administration’s initial handling of testing when he was asked about how Congress’s extended recess could impact the availability of test kits nationwide during a Monday appearance on the network’s Outnumbered Overtime.
“You know, the testing issue is a really big issue, and it’s an issue that has from the start been screwed up by the CDC. They concede that there was a failure in the initial launch of tests, and they had to restart, and it really cost several weeks,” Baier explained.
He then noted how President Trump’s rhetoric has changed in regard to testing. Trump initially touted plans to have testing done in parking lots and for patients to get screened through Google, but he has since shifted the responsibility of testing to governors.
“Now the president is saying it’s up to the governors to do the testing,” Baier said. “So there has been an evolution on testing. Now, I think the fact that you have Dr. Birx, Dr. Redfield, and Dr. Fauci backing up this rollout, saying that they have enough tests in these states to do at least phase one — the experts are signing on, but the testing issue is still a real big issue as companies get their heads around how to plus-up all of these tests in the millions.”
The White House announced last week that the states have enough testing capacity to begin the first phase of reopening their economies, but some governors have pushed back on the notion. The president said Sunday he would be invoking the Defense Production Act to increase the manufacturing of swabs needed for the test kits.
