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Trump Calls Own Officials Wrong In Debate As Biden Says Truth Treated As ‘Bad Idea’ In White House

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This article is more than 3 years old.
Updated Sep 29, 2020, 11:53pm EDT

Topline

The first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden showcased a failure to agree on basic facts and the president’s penchant to cast aside expert advice, with Trump frequently contradicting his own officials and Biden suggesting the truth is met with hostility in the Trump White House.

Key Facts

Confronted by moderator Chris Wallace about statements from CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield and Moncef Slaoui, the pharmaceutical exec tapped to run the administration’s coronavirus vaccine effort, that a vaccine likely will not be widely available until the summer of 2021, Trump responded “it’s a very political thing.”

“I disagree with both of them,” Trump added, arguing a vaccine will be “sooner” and once again espousing his belief that it will be ready to ship to a broad swath of Americans before the end of the year.

After Trump made numerous references to Antifa, an amorphous left-wing movement that Trump frequently casts, with scant evidence, as the root cause of much civil unrest, Biden cited the disagreement of FBI Director Christopher Wray, who Trump appointed in 2017.

“His own FBI director said… Antifa is an idea not an organization,” Biden noted, to which Trump responded, “Well you know what, he’s wrong.”

Biden shot back back that administration officials who bring Trump truthful but politically inconvenient counsel are often treated as though they have “a bad idea,” a common criticism of Trump that has particularly heated up during the pandemic.

Crucial Quote

“He, I think, maybe misunderstood a question,” Trump said of Redfield after the latter testified to the Senate that a vaccine likely wouldn’t be available until well into 2021, adding “I think he got the message maybe confused. Maybe it was stated incorrectly.”

Chief Critic

“I'm not gonna put him in the crosshairs,” Biden said of Wray earlier this month, calling Trump a “very vindictive president” for going after Wray for saying “the exact truth” on Antifa. Biden wouldn’t say, however, whether he would keep Wray on if elected, stating, “I'm not going to commit to putting or keeping anybody or getting rid of anybody.”

What To Watch For

One person Biden has said he would keep on is Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official. Trump has frequently had public disagreements with Fauci, who has found himself iced out of the White House at times over his clashes with Trump. Biden has slammed the administration’s criticisms of Fauci as a “disgusting attempt to pass the buck” and said, if elected, he would “immediately reach out to Dr. Fauci and ask him to continue his incredible service to our country.”

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