There was a hearing on Wednesday in the House of Representatives on the state of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. First, the hearing was incredibly dark and gloomy. From Bloomberg, via the Detroit News:

“Bottom line: It’s going to get worse,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci told the House Oversight and Reform Committee. “If we don’t do very serious mitigation now, what’s going to happen is we’re going to be weeks behind” in containing the spread. Fauci said the U.S. must limit the influx of the virus from abroad and take steps to contain it domestically, including by restricting large gatherings such as sporting events.

He said a vaccine is still at least a year away. Responding to questions, Fauci said he couldn’t give a precise estimate of how many people in the U.S. might get infected. “It is going to be totally dependent on how we respond to it, so I can’t give you a number,” Fauci said. “If we are complacent and don’t do really aggressive containment and mitigation, the number could be way up and be involved in many, many millions. But if we sought to contain, we could mitigate it.”



Then it just got weird. From The Hill:



Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said at the start of the hearing that it would end an hour and a half early because President Trump called an “emergency” meeting with the witnesses, who are leading the government’s coronavirus response...“This morning we were informed that President Trump and Vice President Pence have called our witnesses to an emergency meeting at the White House,” Maloney said. “We don't know the details, just that it is extremely urgent.”At about 11:30 a.m., she ended questioning from lawmakers, saying she received notice from the White House that the witnesses needed to leave “now.”



“I don't know what's going on at the White House,” she said. “There seems to be a great deal of confusion and a lack of coordination at the White House. I hope this does not reflect on the broader response to this crisis.” Two people familiar with the matter questioned whether the meeting Maloney referenced was in fact an emergency, and it was unclear if it was separate from the daily 4 p.m. meetings that have been led by Pence. One official suggested the cited meeting may have been called to limit the time of the Oversight hearing, where officials were facing difficult questions from Democrats about the administration’s handling of the coronavirus.



You think? The administration* screwed this up from jump and now is engaged in an all-out effort to cover its ass, not only on its original bungling, but also on the continuing consequences of that bungling. And any charge that this particular administration* is blocking congressional oversight is prima facie true at this point. Reuters helpfully connects a few more dots in that regard.

The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus. Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said.

“We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” one official said. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.” The sources said the National Security Council (NSC), which advises the president on security issues, ordered the classification. “This came directly from the White House,” one official said.

There is no good reason for this policy except to keep inconvenient information from the public. If this were just another crooked emoluments deal, that would be one (really bad) thing. But it’s not easy to think of anything concerning the public health in the middle of a global pandemic that you would want to keep from the general public unless it was for political reasons, which would be completely inexcusable in the current context. They really don’t know what they're doing.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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