With Vice President Mike Pence at the head of the group, the Trump regime has formed a coronavirus task force whose first priority was evidently to silence all other officials who aren't members of the task force.
And that brings us to infamous prognosticator Larry Kudlow.
The New York Times first reported that all public statements regarding the virus will now be screened by the White House task force which now includes Kudlow.
Public health officials — rather than Trump loyalists like Kudlow — have been praised for speaking bluntly about the virus.
For example, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, Anthony Fauci, has spoken openly about the timetables for vaccines and therapies for coronavirus. While progress has been quick according to epidemiological standards, Fauci has repeatedly been clear that a vaccine is at least 12-18 months away. Trump, meanwhile, has simply said that vaccines are on the way “rapidly.”
Fauci has told associates that he’d been instructed by the White House not to say anything else without clearance, the Times reported Thursday.
Kudlow has also been outspoken about the virus, but what Kudlow said was entirely different than what actual experts have said.
Kudlow said the Trump regime has placed an "airtight" lid on the virus and he's now on the task force responsible for clearing messages from health officials.
And that's why he was appointed to this task force, isn't it? Trump is trying to control the message as he sits in the White House watching the market tank because he thinks words are the only thing threatening the economy he inherited from President Obama. The market is currently down almost 800 points as of this writing even as Trump tries to control what words officials use in public.
Unfortunately for the White House, they cannot control what state and local health officials say.