Trump Passes COVID-19 Test, But Is Still Failing the Course

https://time.com/5803363/trump-test-coronavirus/

  But beyond Trump’s public pronouncements, there’s a deeper test of his leadership at work. As he takes credit for his decision to restrict travel from China in late January, which health experts around him have said slowed the progression of the virus to the U.S. and bought time to prepare for its inevitable arrival here, he’s sidestepped blame for any mistakes by his administration. Those include cutting personnel from pandemic preparedness, lack of adequate testing capacity for the COVID-19 outbreak, and a belated turn to mitigating its effects in the U.S., despite years of warnings.

“Yeah, no, I don’t take responsibility at all,” Trump said when asked on Friday if he takes responsibility for the limited number of COVID-19 tests available inside the U.S. He blamed the lag in testing on “rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time” that wasn’t designed for the volume of tests needed to respond to the crisis. Asked later if he took responsibility for the disbanding of the White House office responsible for overseeing the response to pandemics in 2018, Trump said, “I didn’t do it,” adding, “I don’t know anything about it.”