Gov. Hogan: Trump’s ‘Biggest’ Mistake Was Not Following Experts’ Advice Throughout Pandemic

Thursday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) argued President Donald Trump’s biggest mistake during the coronavirus pandemic was not following the advice of public health experts.

Mitchell said, “The big story on the front page of “The Washington Post” today is that there is no plan. There’s no plan for national testing. The president, just in the last 24 hours, talked to Dr. Fauci for the first time in two months. The CDC has been eliminated from gathering daily hospital data, and it’s now been transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, to the criticism of most public health experts. What has improved?”

Hogan said, “Well, I think those are some of the biggest mistakes that the president made throughout this pandemic, and that was not following the advice of the experts, the doctors, the scientists, his own CDC, and people like Dr. Fauci who in my opinion has been the most respected, most trusted voice, and the guy we’re getting the most honest information from throughout this entire crisis.”

He continued, “Quite frankly, this recent attack, this campaign against Dr. Fauci, in my opinion, is probably, although it was not covered in my book because it’s happened so recently, I think it’s probably one of the biggest mistakes they’ve made because throughout this, I think many Americans, myself included, have been listening very carefully to the advice and the input and the wisdom of Dr. Fauci. And to exclude him and some of the advice from the president’s own team I think is a mistake. I talk about this in the book, there were really smart people in the administration, in the CDC and HHS, and folks like Dr. Fauci who really were on top of this and who were giving great advice. I talk about how the vice president was actually doing a good job of leading the coronavirus task force. But I think, you know, sometimes the president was ignoring the advice of his own people, and he was going in a completely opposite direction, saying an exact opposite message of what the entire rest of the administration was saying.”

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