White House finally responds to questions about fewer deaths if Trump had acted sooner -- they blamed China

Reporters asked President Donald Trump Wednesday if he had seen the data saying that 36,000 Americans would not have died if he had acted just one week earlier in March. Trump responded to the question by attacking CBS reporter Weija Jiang and calling it "fake news."

Upon further reflection, the White House eventually responded to the alleged "fake news," though they still dodged their role in the slow response to the pandemic.

"What would have saved life is if China had been transparent and the World Health Organization had fulfilled its mission. What did save American lives is the bold leadership of President Trump, including the early travel restrictions when we had no idea the true level of asymptotic spread and the greatest mobilization of the private sector since World War II to deliver critical supplies to states in need and ramp up testing across the country that has placed us on a responsible path to reopen our country."

"Even small differences in timing would have prevented the worst exponential growth, which by April had subsumed New York City, New Orleans and other major cities, researchers found," the Times reported.

Dodging responsibility may be politically expedient for the president's reelection chances, but analysts, doctors and scientists are concerned about the reemergence of the virus in the fall. It's unknown if the Trump administration will be slow to respond if the virus sees the resurgence that is expected.