Biden Adviser Slams Trump’s Handling of Coronavirus but Claimed ‘No Reason’ to Panic Last Month

Joe Biden’s campaign posted a video of adviser Ron Klain slamming President Trump’s response to coronavirus, but just last month, Klain said there was “no reason to really panic.”

“The fact is we knew a lot more about Ebola in the fall of 2014 than we know about this new virus right now,” Klain told Pod Save America in February.

Flashback: @RonaldKlain, Biden’s “Coronavirus” adviser who’s hitting Trump FOR “downplaying” the threat, himself downplayed it a month ago on @PodSaveAmerica

“No reason to yet to be fearful, no reason really panic or anything like that” pic.twitter.com/YzF7e8Ofdx

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 23, 2020

Klain said:

Leading medical experts didn’t know it existed six weeks ago. So, there’s just a lot of uncertainty about the basics, uncertainty about how infectious it truly is, how much it’s going to spread, how much it’s spread already in China, how much we should expect it to spread outside of China, doubts about how lethal it is, what will the fatality rate, the rate of serious illnesses wind up being.

So what I’d say is I think we have reason to be concerned. I think there’s reason for the U.S. to be more aggressive in response than what’s been mounted so far in many respects, a reason to be prepared for something. But I think no reason yet to be fearful, no reason to really panic or anything like that. I think there’s just a lot of unknowns about this virus and what its path is going to be.

On Saturday, Klain struck a much different tone and blamed the Trump administration for the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Everyone knows that we're facing a real crisis from the coronavirus. But do you know how we got here and what we need to do next? Ron Klain, former White House Ebola Response Coordinator, breaks it down for us: pic.twitter.com/XRkIw2EzM4

— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) March 21, 2020

“Everyone knows that America’s facing a real challenge from the coronavirus,” Klain said.

Klain said the virus began spreading in January 2020 and “some countries acted quickly.”

Just 18 seconds into the video presentation, Klain attacked President Trump.

Klain said Trump’s “slow response” to the crisis is “no surprise,” before he pushed a conspiracy theory already debunked by Breitbart News.

It wasn’t until halfway through the video that Biden’s adviser talked about “solutions” to the crisis.

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @KyleOlson4.