President Trump said Wednesday that the reason health experts like Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci no longer attend his coronavirus press briefings is because they brief him on "everything they know as of this point in time" and he passes the information on to the public.
Why it matters: Before they were canceled in April, Trump's daily briefings grew infamous for being rife with misinformation, which his health experts would be forced to carefully contradict.
- On Wednesday, Trump said that he would be "comfortable" with his son and grandchildren returning to school in the fall and claimed that "a lot of people are saying" children don't transmit the virus easily.
- The science is not yet conclusive on the role of children in spreading COVID-19. A recent study out South Korea found that children between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the coronavirus at least as effectively as adults do.
The exchange:
The big picture: Fauci in particular rarely briefs the president anymore and was not invited to either of the newly-revived briefings that Trump held on Tuesday and Wednesday....
- Fauci told the New York Times on Tuesday: "[W]ould