Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks
Official White House Photo by Andrea HanksBy LIBBY CATHEY, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is facing continued questions Tuesday after he said he’s taking hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug he’s touted as a possible “game changer” treatment for COVID-19, for about a week and a half, though he said he has “zero symptoms” and despite safety concerns.
“I’m taking the zinc and the hydroxy. And all I can tell you is, so far I seem to be okay,” Trump said Monday at a meeting with restaurant executives. “I get a lot of positive calls about it.”
When asked about the president using a drug that the Food and Drug Administration has recently warned against taking “outside of a hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was “not a good idea.”
“I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group and in his, shall we say, weight group, ‘morbidly obese,’ they say,” the California Democrat told CNN.
President Trump is expected to travel to Capitol Hill to meet with Republicans senators at their weekly policy lunch, as the Trump administration and Congress weigh another round of economic relief.
Here are Tuesday’s most significant developments in Washington:
White House press secretary doesn’t know ‘exact rationale’ behind Trump’s use of hydroxychloroquine, Birx appears to ignore question
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said this morning that she didn’t know “the exact rationale” behind President Trump’s decision to take hydroxychloroquine but that “the president just wanted to be transparent about his personal health decision that he made in consultation with his doctor.”
“I don’t have any information about the exact rationale,” she told Fox News when asked for details. “That was a personal deliberation with Dr. Conley and the president.”
McEnany noted that “any use of hydroxychloroquine has to be in consultation with your doctor” and requires a prescription.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House after her interview, McEnany dismissed questions about any vagueness and careful wording of the memo from White House physician Sean Conley released Monday night, saying the purpose “was to give a medical rationale” for the decision for Trump to take it.
“The purpose of this letter was to show that Dr. Conley agreed with the analysis that the benefits outweighed the risk,” she said. “The president should be taken at his word, and the purpose of this letter was to show just that, as it did, the rationale behind it.”
The White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, ignored a question from a reporter this morning on the topic, as she walked by a camera in the White House driveway. She, instead, commented on the weather.
Pence meets with Mnuchin, McConnell and McCarthy on Capitol Hill
Nearly two weeks after his press secretary tested positive for COVID-19, Vice President Mike Pence was at the U.S. Capitol building this morning for a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “to discuss COVID-19 and economy,” according to a McConnell spokesperson.
The four were scheduled to meet before Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testified before the Senate Banking Committee.
McConnell was questioned last week if he opposes measures in the new House bill such as direct payments for Americans or hazard pay for essential workers.
“What I’ve said is, we’re taking a look at what we’ve already done. And we’ve added about $3 trillion to the national debt, and assessing the effectiveness of that before deciding to go forward. I’m in discussion, we all are, with the administration. If we reach a decision along with the administration to move to another phase, that’ll be the time to interact with the Democrats,” he said.
ABC News’ Trish Turner
Trump tweets 4-page letter about WHO funding, threatens permanent hold
Citing concerns about what he called the “World Health Organization’s alarming lack of independence from the People’s Republic of China,” President Trump late Monday tweeted out a four-page letter to the WHO director-general saying if the United Nations agency “does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of U.S. funding permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization.”
This is the letter sent to Dr. Tedros of the World Health Organization. It is self-explanatory! pic.twitter.com/pF2kzPUpDv
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2020
Earlier Monday, Trump said he declined an opportunity to speak to the WHO virtual assembly on the pandemic because “they’ve done a very sad job in the last period of time” and “they are a puppet of China.”
China’s President Xi Jinping did not pass up his chance to address the WHO’s decision-making body. During his remarks, Xi supported an international review after the pandemic ends and also said China would donate $2 billion to global coronavirus aid.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
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