'Whipping us with wet noodles': Trump has driven coronavirus response 'for weeks,' Cuccinelli says

Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli urged calm over fears of a coronavirus epidemic, crediting President Trump with a preemptive response to the global outbreak.

The president has been “whipping us with wet noodles for weeks now” to stay ahead of the spread of coronavirus, Cuccinelli said Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. "There's a reason the threat is low in the United States as of now."

Cuccinelli stressed that while the president spoke about the risks of the outbreak for the first time this week, he has been "very aggressive" in wrangling a behind-the-scenes countervirus response.

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