The White House has finally crafted a pandemic playbook, according to press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who announced it on Thursday. But over the past three years, no one has heard anything about it, according to MSNBC.
McEnany said that the Obama Administration's report that was handed to the Trump White House when they entered in 2017 "was superseded" by another report that was crafted in Aug. 2019.
"So, I guess they're making the argument that everything they've implemented is part of a pandemic plan they put together last August?" asked MSNBC host Chuck Todd.
"Which we have never heard of, Chuck," said NBC News reporter Shannon Pettypiece. "And I'm, obviously, still looking into this and so are my colleagues. We've never heard of any pandemic preparedness plan. This was the first time they are mentioning it that she brought out these binders. We're going to try to find more details. It seems unusual that here we are in mid-May that they'd now start talking about what their preparedness plan was."
The Trump administration has been criticized for the past three months for its slow response to the coronavirus crisis. The binders containing their pandemic plan will likely reveal whether the plan was to wait several months before issuing a stay-at-home order or whether the playbook outlined downplaying the virus as "the flu."
Watch the clip below: