...Kristen Welker of NBC News asked Trump about the lag in testing, which Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had described as “a failing,” the day before.
“Do you take responsibility for that?” Welker asked.
“Yeah, no,” Trump replied. “I don’t take responsibility at all.”
When Yamiche Alcindor of PBS Newshour followed up by pointing out that Trump’s National Security Council had eliminated a team responsible for global health security, which was created by his predecessor to coordinate the response to pandemic threats, the president took offense and denied even knowing if such a thing had taken place.
“You said that you don’t take responsibility, but you did disband the White House pandemic office, and the officials that were working in that office left this administration abruptly. So what responsibility do you take to that?” Alcindor asked. “And the officials that worked in that office said that you, that the White House lost valuable time because that office was disbanded. What do you make of that?”
“Well, I just think it’s a nasty question,” Trump replied. “And when you say me — I didn’t do it. We have a group of people I could–”
“It’s your administration,” Alcindor interjected.
“I could ask perhaps,” Trump continued. “It’s my administration, but I could perhaps ask Tony about that, because I don’t know anything about it,” the president said, gesturing towards Dr. Fauci, who was not involved in disbanding the team, but had expressed regret that it was no longer there. “I mean, you say we did that. I don’t know anything about it,” Trump added.
“You don’t know about the reorganization that happened at the National Security Council?” Alcindor asked.
“It’s the administration. Perhaps they do that,” Trump replied. “You know, people let people go. You used to be with a different newspaper than you are now,” he said, referring, in confused terms, to the reporter having been hired by PBS, which is not a newspaper, from The New York Times, which did not fire her. “You know, things like that happen,” the president said, before the White House staff cut off the reporter’s microphone to make her next question inaudible.