President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that the US intelligence community “did NOT bring up the Coronavirus subject matter until late into January” and that “they only spoke of the Virus in a very non-threatening, or matter of fact, manner.”
CNN and other news outlets have reported that the President's daily intelligence briefing included information about the coronavirus outbreak in China and its potential to spread to the United States as early as January 3. It is not clear whether Trump -- who infrequently reads the President's Daily Brief compiled by intelligence officials -- read the information at the time or whether officials briefing the President in person raised the issue.
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The Washington Post also reported last week that US intelligence agencies included warnings about the coronavirus in more than a dozen classified briefings prepared for the President in January and February.
While claiming that he was only briefed about the coronavirus in late January, Trump did not address why he continued to downplay the threat of the virus in January, February and March. As late as March 9, Trump continued to downplay the threat of coronavirus, comparing it to the flu despite public health experts' warnings against such a comparison.
Trump also falsely claimed in his tweet that those allowed into the US from China "were heavily scrutinized and tested U.S. citizens." Passengers returning to the United States from China were not tested at airports, though there had been some basic screening and a request that those passengers self-quarantine for 14 days.
Trump’s claims join a list of deflections throughout the pandemic as the President has sought to combat negative perceptions about the US response. By Sunday, more than 1.1 million people in the US were infected with the virus, and more than 67,000 had died, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.