(thepostmillennial)During a White House press conference on Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci refuted an earlier CNN report that the Biden administration was “starting from scratch” with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
CNN quoted unnamed officials in the Biden Administration that they received “no plan” from the outgoing Trump administration. According to CNN, the anonymous sources alleged that “There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch.”
Fauci was asked by NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker during the presser if the new administration was actually “starting from scratch.”
Dr. Fauci debunks a CNN report stating the Biden White House was “starting from scratch” and inherited “no plan” on vaccine distribution from the Trump team:
“We certainly are not starting from scratch because there is activity going on in the distribution.” pic.twitter.com/9tULjHazxz
— Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) January 22, 2021
Fauci answered, “We certainly are not starting from scratch because there is activity going on in the distribution,” and then began describing the Biden administration’s plan.
CNN has reported on-air today a total of 23 times that the Biden administration has had to start from “scratch” – Dr. Fauci directly contradicts this Biden talking point. https://t.co/mdmkyACOQu
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) January 21, 2021
CNN White House correspondent MJ Lee, attempted to defend her reporting on social media and called Fauci “a holdover from the Trump administration.”
Fauci, a holdover from the Trump administration, said about the previous admin’s vaccine distribution efforts: “You can’t say it was absolutely not usable at all.”
(In the last hour, Biden said Trump’s vaccine rollout had been a “dismal failure”)
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) January 21, 2021
Lee’s comments which attempted to paint Fauci as a Trump loyalist are contrary to a different story CNN ran earlier in the day entitled, “Fauci talks ‘liberating feeling’ serving under Biden versus Trump.”
Dr. Fauci: “The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence, what the science is and know that’s it, let the science speak, it is somewhat of a liberating feeling.” pic.twitter.com/KOqmXqHsSI
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 22, 2021
The article quoted Faucci from a briefing where he said, “The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence, what the science is — let the science speak. “It is somewhat of a liberating feeling.”
Even Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) repeated CNN’s false narrative. “We learned this morning that the Trump Administration had no real plan for the production and distribution of the vaccine.”
Biden Administration, Day 2…
Nancy Pelosi at 12:37pm: “We learned this morning that the Trump Administration had no real plan for the production and distribution of the vaccine.”
Dr. Fauci at 4:13pm: “We certainly are not starting from scratch.” pic.twitter.com/WOhZug6siF
— ForAmerica (@ForAmerica) January 21, 2021
CNN has now updated the original story to add Faucci’s refutation of Lee’s narrative but buried it under the original disputed reporting. Later CNN added a live update as part of their chronicle of Biden’s first day in office entitled, “Fauci disputes reports vaccine distribution efforts have to start ‘from scratch.'”