White House trade adviser Peter Navarro publicly said Americans had “nothing to worry about” while he privately warned the White House that the coronavirus pandemic could cost trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of American lives.
Navarro circulated two memos at the White House in late January and February warning that a full-blown coronavirus outbreak would leave American lives and the economy vulnerable.
But Navarro, a frequent surrogate for President Donald Trump and his administration on television, continued to present a far more optimistic message in public, CNN’s KFile found after reviewing Navarro’s interviews, statements and writings.
In the January 29 memo, Navarro wrote that the “increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic” could infect as many as 100 million Americans and kill “as many as 1-2 million souls.” That same day — in which the coronavirus task force was also formed — Navarro made no mention of the possibility when asked a question about the impact of the coronavirus while appearing on CNBC promoting the USMCA trade agreement…
To read the entire article from CNN, click https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/10/politics/peter-navarro-coronavirus/index.html