(CNN) The first masks arrived on the White House grounds in February by special order of the National Security Council, mobilizing early on to address the emerging threat of the coming coronavirus. Job One in their emergency response was to take personal precautions, preparing for the critical work at hand, multiple officials tell CNN.But word that some NSC staffers were being told to wear masks quickly made its way back to the West Wing and it wasn’t long before a sharp dictum came down.
“If you have the whole West Wing running around wearing masks, it wasn’t a good look,” one administration official recalled of the directive that came down from senior staff and lawyers.The West Wing wanted to “portray confidence and make the public believe there was absolutely nothing to worry about,” the official said, revealing the image-conscious reason for the opposition to masks for the first time.
The directive opened a schism in the White House complex that would ultimately hinder its ability to contain the spread of the new virus they were now calling Covid-19. Interviews with more than a dozen current and former administration officials show how that fissure appeared and spread even as confirmed cases in the US began to grow.
Leaders in several states warn residents to be on guard as worrying Covid-19 trends emerge
The officials all requested anonymity either because they were not authorized to discuss the matter or because they were sharing private conversations with people currently in the administration. But they tell a consistent story of how White House attempts to deal with the virus were dogged by President Donald Trump’s fixation on one thing: optics.The ensuing disaster has now claimed the lives of more than 200,000 Americans in what may be the most politicized health crisis of the modern presidency.
The radical polarization that now grips the country traces back to the very first workplace where it really sank in, at the West Wing of the White House.White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews, addressing questions about this story, said that the President “took the virus seriously from the beginning, as evidenced by his administration taking early steps in January to protect the American people.”
It was Democrats and the media, she says, who were obsessing at the time — “over the partisan and futile impeachment trial.”But several key officials tell a consistent and different story, about image management and the trouble it caused in pandemic response from the very beginning.”We lost so much time,” a former administration official said, looking back. “The whole thing was mind-blowing. This could have been so different.”
All about optics
From the outset, the President’s political advisers were clearly thinking about optics. Almost from the beginning of the pandemic, their strategy was to cast the US infection rate in as favorable a light as possible — by comparing it to the rate in China, where the virus was born and already spreading wildly, several officials said.
White House becomes ground zero for culture war over face masks
“The numbers mattered, from a political standpoint, because it just looks better,” one former official recalled.Information concerning the virus first appeared in the President’s daily intelligence briefing on January 3, but officials said it wasn’t clear how closely he read the briefing. No immediate action was taken, they said.On January 6, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 1 travel notice for Wuhan, amid fears that the virus was spreading beyond its origin.
The first-known case of coronavirus in the US was confirmed on January 20, but in the weeks prior to that revelation, the administration’s China watchers had already been paying close attention to the evolving situation, and worried that proactive measures needed to be taken in order to ensure it never made its way to the US, several officials said.Yet when it came to announcing a big step forward in Trump’s trade deal with China, a visit from Chinese government officials was deemed by the White House as far too important to let concerns over the virus get in the way.
Three people told CNN that none of the Chinese delegates who attended the January 15 signing ceremony were tested before their arrival at the White House, nor do they believe that the topic of coronavirus was broached with the visiting delegation.More than 200 people were invited to the White House that day to witness the signing, including members of the Cabinet and American business leaders.
The show went on, and coronavirus was an afterthought. Crammed into the East Room, maskless attendees sat elbow-to-elbow, cheering on what was viewed as a “historic” deal that could give Trump a boost in the polls come November.Trump, in the days following, would praise Chinese President Xi Jinping for his efforts toward containing the virus — praise that often evolved into a personal victory lap over the conclusion of the partial trade deal.
But in retrospect, some officials felt the celebration was too great a risk.Trump “put his Cabinet in jeopardy, and the 200 American business leaders who were there that day,” said one former administration official briefed on discussions that took place that day. “The Chinese put us in danger by coming here. But the President never uses that line against them because he doesn’t want to impugn his precious Phase One accomplishment.
“At that same time, officials say the West Wing had its mind elsewhere. The Senate impeachment trial began just one day after the President’s White House trade ceremony, and his political team was already looking ahead to his reelection bid.
They were mainly hoping to make it through the year without any unexpected crises.But then, a few positive coronavirus cases were confirmed in the US toward late January. West Wing staff often told others in the administration that this was nothing to worry about, one former official said.”
‘This isn’t a big deal,’ ” the official, who, like the others, was concerned about this policy while supportive of others said, recalling how colleagues discussed it.” ‘America is lowest on the list of places. Look at all these other countries doing a bad job. We’re doing a great job in America. We’re safe. We’ve got the best doctors in the world. Our borders are secure,’ et cetera.
“In internal White House meetings, staffers were repeatedly being told that the virus had been “contained” because there were only 15 cases.Roughly 300 tests were available at that point, one of the former officials with direct knowledge said. Quietly, some of them began to question whether that was enough to make an accurate assessment.
