The Truth About the Charge That Trump ‘Eliminated’ White House Pandemic Office Before Coronavirus

A chief line of attack during the coronavirus crisis from former Obama administration officials and leading Democrats is that President Donald Trump shut down a White House office on pandemics that might have stopped COVID-19 from spreading—or at least alleviated the threat.

The attack is based on a 2018 decision by then-national security adviser John Bolton to reorganize the White House’s National Security Council.

But the top National Security Council official at the time of the change stressed that no office was closed.

“We consolidated three directorates into one,” Tim Morrison, former senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the NSC, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “This eliminated layers in the reporting chain and in the accountability chain.”
 
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