Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pushed the debunked theory that President Donald Trump called the novel coronavirus a “hoax” Thursday on MSNBC .
Schumer spoke with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on “MSNBC Live with Ali Velshi.” Wallace mentioned a story from the New York Times “about a former top vaccine doctor [Rick Bright] who was ousted from his position” and asked if there is “a more robust oversight role for science right now in the executive branch that” Schumer would “advocate.”
“There has to be,” Schumer said. “This is science, and because so many in the administration haven’t listened to science is one of the reasons we’re in trouble here. And it says another thing, Nicole.”
“Everyone has seen how Donald Trump has behaved during coronavirus, so much of a concern about himself rather than helping people, pushing it under the rug, calling it a hoax, saying it will go away, delaying the activities we need.”
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Schumer received no pushback from Wallace for pushing the debunked claim that Trump called the novel coronavirus a “hoax.” This claim has been rated fake news by multiple fact checks, from the Washington Post to the Daily Caller’s Check Your Fact.
“There’s almost no one in the White House who speaks truth to power, who says the truth to the president and says ‘you have to listen to this,'” Schumer continued. “In fact, anybody who does that, like this gentleman from BARDA, ends up getting fired – or like so many others we know, big names, generals, they get exasperated and leave.”
“When truth doesn’t prevail – that’s the American way, truth and facts and science. When they don’t prevail, we run into real trouble. In this administration there are just too few people who will speak that truth to power, who will let the president know what the real facts are and say, ‘Mr. President, you’re wrong, chloroquine doesn’t work.'”
Schumer wasn’t the only one pushing questionable reports.
Wallace herself failed to note the many issues with the NYT story, as previously reported by the Daily Caller. The MSNBC anchor touted the story and suggested it was definitive that Bright was fired for refusing to “champion the unproven drug treatments that Donald Trump and his allies on Fox News were so enthused about.” (RELATED: NYT Story About Ousted HHS Director Rick Bright Starts To Crumble Almost Instantly)
In fact, reports from numerous people indicate that Bright was on his way out far before the novel coronavirus became a major known threat in America.
Additionally, the former head of the Health and Human Services (HHS) vaccine office himself requested that the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] “issue an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for emergency use of oral formulations of chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate for the treatment of 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19)” in March, according to a press release from the FDA on March 28.
Wallace did not mention this as she led up to her question Thursday.