Morning Joe claims ‘everybody saw’ coronavirus coming in early Jan, except almost no one, including Joe, actually saw it coming

1 Apr, 2020 15:18 / Updated 5 years ago

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough claims the Trump administration should have seen the Covid-19 threat coming in early January, but reports show he and others weren’t even aware of the threat at that time.

“The fact is, everybody saw this coming. Everybody saw this coming in early January,” Scarborough said of the coronavirus pandemic on his show Wednesday morning. His words were a rebuke to repeated claims by President Donald Trump that the virus is an “unforeseen” problem that “nobody saw coming.”

Despite saying “everybody” recognized the threat of the virus months ago, critics have already piled on Scarborough to point out some very prominent people did not see the pandemic coming, the morning show host included.

Grabien founder and editor Tom Elliott pointed out that his service, which gathers videos from media programs, said the first mention of the coronavirus on ‘Morning Joe’ wasn’t until January 24, and the segment was meant more to downplay the threat than to warn citizens about it.

“This is a fabrication and rewriting of history,” commentator Stephen L. Miller tweeted in response to the Scarborough clip, adding that the Twitter account for the ‘Morning Joe’ program only recently began tweeting about coronavirus.

Also on rt.com US breaks its one-day record with 865 Covid-19 fatalities, but peak not expected until mid-April

More importantly than Scarborough not being aware of the threat, the World Health Organization was also tweeting in mid-January that there was “no clear evidence” the coronavirus could be transmitted from human to human.

It’s unclear to whom Scarborough is referring to when he says “everybody,” but clearly he must not count himself or the World Health Organization amongst “everybody.”

Like this story? Share it with a friend!