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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that she has no confidence in Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.
ABC’s This Week anchor Martha Raddatz asked Pelosi whether she had confidence in Birx, citing reports from POLITICO that during a closed-door meeting earlier this week, Pelosi accused her of “spreading disinformation about the pandemic.”
“Is that true and do you have confidence in her?” Raddatz asked.
“I think the President has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don’t have confidence there, no.”
POLITICO reported that during a Thursday night closed meeting, Pelosi had told Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, “Deborah Birx is the worst. Wow, what horrible hands you’re in.”
Birx responded Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, saying that she has “tremendous respect” for Pelosi but stressed that she has “never been called Pollyannaish, or non-scientific or non-data-driven.”
“I will stake my 40-year career on those fundamental principles of utilizing data to really implement better programs to save more lives,” Birx said.
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Write to Sanya Mansoor at sanya.mansoor@time.com