A former member of Donald Trump s White House coronavirus task force has lifted the lid on what went down behind the scenes when the then-president talked on national TV last year about injecting disinfectant to combat the coronavirus.
Were in shock. You could see everyone looking around the room, saying, Did he really just say that? recalled Olivia Troye , a former aide to then-Vice President Mike Pence , in a video released Saturday by the Republican Accountability Project, an anti-Trump conservative organization.
Troye said the task force on April 23, 2020, had wanted to communicate during its televised presser that the mitigations and the 45 days to slow the spread had worked and the numbers had dropped.
Dr. Trump on curing #coronavirus: Suppose if we hit the body with a tremendous light whether its ultraviolet or just a powerful light...[or] brought the light inside the body...the disinfectant [also] knocks it out, [so perhaps we could] inject it inside.pic.twitter.com/2rtQdri7sC
Louis Fishman (@Istanbultelaviv) April 24, 2020","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Louis Fishman ","author_url":"https://twitter.com/Istanbultelaviv","cache_age":86400,"description":"Dr. Trump on curing #coronavirus: Suppose if we hit the body with a tremendous light whether its ultraviolet or just a powerful light...[or] brought the light inside the body...the disinfectant [also] knocks it out, [so perhaps we could] inject it inside.pic.twitter.com/2rtQdri7sC Louis Fishman (@Istanbultelaviv) April 24, 2020\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Louis Fishman on 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Project","slug":"republican-accountability-project","links":{"relativeLink":"topic/republican-accountability-project","permalink":"https://action.news/topic/republican-accountability-project","mobileWebLink":"https://action.news/topic/republican-accountability-project"},"url":"https://action.news/topic/republican-accountability-project"}],"isLiveblogLive":null,"isLiveblog":false,"cetUnit":"buzz_body","bodyAds":["\r\n\r\n","\r\n\r\n","\r\n\r\n"],"adCount":0},"isCollectionEmbed":false}">Dr. Trump on curing #coronavirus : Suppose if we hit the body with a tremendous light whether its ultraviolet or just a powerful light...[or] brought the light inside the body...the disinfectant [also] knocks it out, [so perhaps we could] inject it inside.pic.twitter.com/2rtQdri7sC
Louis Fishman (@Istanbultelaviv) April 24, 2020
But Trump got excited by a pre-press conference briefing from the Department of Homeland Security that showed sunshine and cleaners could potentially reduce the number of hours that a virus can live on a surface.
Addressing the media soon after, Trump suggested testing very powerful light inside the body and disinfectant given by injection as ways to kill the virus.
After the press briefing, Dr. [Deborah] Birx (Trumps COVID-19 response coordinator) walks through the door and looks straight at me and says, Why was he talking to me? I have nothing to do with that setting. He just threw away all of the work weve done, recalled Troye, who was in the room next to where Trump was making his comments.
Trump later claimed his comments were sarcastic, but Troye remembered the fallout having to think of how best to mitigate people taking Trump at his word and subsequent reports of people swallowing or gargling bleach to ward off COVID-19.
Trump and Trumpism still has a strong hold on the Republican Party . He has hinted at running in 2024. That is why we need to remember moments like this, Troye concluded. Because we cant allow him or someone like him to ever hold power again.
Watch the video here: