On CNN Wednesday, President Donald Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro went on air to attack the World Health Organization for taking China at its word on the coronavirus pandemic — and Jake Tapper quickly confronted him with President Donald Trump's comments just months before praising China for its "transparency" and saying that "President Xi is working very, very hard."
"How can you criticize the World Health Organization for doing the same thing President Trump did, believing President Xi?"
"See, here's the thing, Jake," said Navarro. "One of the reasons why the president may have said that is because he trusted the World Health Organization to be telling him the truth as well. That was a conspiracy between China and the client in the World Health Organization."
"So you're saying President Trump made the mistake of listening not only to President Xi but to the World Health Organization?" Tapper pressed him.
"I never love it when people rephrase me, but let's just — let's just put it on the table," said Navarro. "The Chinese came here on January 15 to sign a trade deal. That might have been a nice time to let us know that there was a raging pandemic with human-to-human transmission. Instead, the day before, the World Health Organization put a tweet out that said—"
"Well, the Taiwanese were warning — we have to go, but the Taiwanese were warning, two weeks, I think, before that trade deal," said Tapper. "But Peter Navarro, thank you so much."
Watch below:
