Senior CDC official fires back at Trump adviser Navarro over criticism of department

According to a report from CNN, a senior CDC official unloaded on Donald Trump's trade advisor, Peter Navarro, for laying the blame for the Trump administration's bungling of the coronavirus pandemic on the department.

Noting rising tensions between the health agency and the White House, CNN reported that an unnamed official stated, "We should remind Mr. Navarro that the CDC is a federal agency part of the administration. The CDC director is an appointed position, and Dr. [Robert] Redfield was appointed by President Trump. If there is criticism of the CDC, ultimately Mr. Navarro is being critical of the President and the man who President Trump placed to lead the agency."

The response came after Navarro said on NBC's "Meet the Press, "Early on in this crisis, the CDC which really had the most trusted brand around the world in this space, really let the country down with the testing. Because not only did they keep the testing within the bureaucracy, they had a bad test. And that did set us back."