Source: Politics<\/p>\n
One year ago today, President Donald Trump took to the White House briefing room and encouraged his top health officials to study the injection of bleach into the human body as a means of fighting Covid. It was a watershed moment, soon to become iconic in the annals of presidential briefings. It arguably changed the course of political history.<\/p>\n
Some ex-Trump aides say they don\u2019t even think about that day as the wildest they experienced \u2014 with the conceit that there were simply too many others. But for those there, it was instantly shocking, even by Trump standards. It quickly came to symbolize the chaotic essence of his presidency and his handling of the pandemic. Twelve months later, with the pandemic still lingering and a U.S. death toll nearing 570,000, it still does.<\/p>\n
“For me, it was the craziest and most surreal moment I had ever witnessed in a presidential press conference,\u201d said ABC\u2019s chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl, who was the first reporter at the briefing to question Trump\u2019s musings about bleach.<\/p>\n
For weeks, Trump had been giving winding, stream-of-consciousness updates on the state of the Covid fight as it clearly worsened. So when he got up from the Oval Office to brief reporters gathered in the The James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on April 23, there was no expectation that the day\u2019s proceedings would be any different than usual.<\/p>\n
Privately, however, some of his aides were worried. The Covid task force had met earlier that day \u2014 as usual, without Trump \u2014 to discuss the most recent findings, including the effects of light and humidity on how the virus spreads. Trump was briefed by a small group of aides. But it was clear to some aides that he hadn\u2019t processed all the details before he left to speak to the press.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few of us actually tried to stop it in the West Wing hallway,\u201d said one former senior Trump White House official. \u201cI actually argued that President Trump wouldn’t have the time to absorb it and understand it. But I lost, and it went how it did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump started his press conference that day by doing something he\u2019d come to loathe: pushing basic public safety measures. He called for the \u201cvoluntary use of face coverings\u201d and said of his administration, \u201ccontinued diligence is an essential part of our strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quickly, however, came a hint at how loose the guardrails were that day. Trump introduced Bill Bryan, head of science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be talking about how the virus reacts in sunlight,\u201d the president said. \u201cWait \u2018til you hear the numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Bryan spoke, charts were displayed behind him about surface temperatures and virus half-lives. He preached, rather presciently, for people to \u201cmove activities outside\u201d and then detailed ongoing studies involving disinfectants. \u201cWe tested bleach,\u201d he said at one point. \u201cI can tell you that bleach will kill the virus in five minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Standing off to the side, Trump clasped his hands in front of his stomach, nodded and looked out into the room of gathered reporters. When Bryan was done, he strode slowly back to the lectern.<\/p>\n
\u201cA question that probably some of you are thinking of if you\u2019re totally into that world,\u201d Trump began, clearly thinking the question himself, \u201cSo, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous \u2014 whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light \u2014 and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that, too. It sounds interesting. And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Deborah Birx, Trump\u2019s former coronavirus response coordinator, sat silently off to the side as the president made these suggestions to her. Later, she would tell ABC, \u201cI didn\u2019t know how to handle that episode,\u201d adding, \u201cI still think about it every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inside the Biden campaign, aides were shocked as well. They were working remotely at that juncture, communicating largely over Signal. But the import of what had happened became quickly evident to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven for him,\u201d said one former Biden campaign aide, \u201cthis was stratospherically insane and dangerous. It cemented the case we had been making about his derelict covid response.\u201d<\/p>\n
In short order, the infamous bleach press conference became a literal rallying cry for Trump\u2019s opponents, with Biden supporters dotting their yards with \u201cHe Won\u2019t Put Bleach In You\u201d signs. For Trump, it was a scourge. He would go on to insist that he was merely being sarcastic \u2014 a claim at odds with the excited curiosity he had posing those questions to Birx. His former team concedes that real damage was done.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople joked about it inside the White House like, \u2018Are you drinking bleach and injecting sunlight?\u2019 People were mocking it and saying, \u2018Oh let me go stand out in the sun, and I\u2019ll be safe from Covid,\u201d said one former administration official. \u201cIt honestly hurt. It was a credibility issue. \u2026 It was hurting us even from an international standpoint, the credibility at the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n
That Trump was even at the lectern that day was head-scratching for many. For weeks, he and his team had downplayed the severity of the Covid crisis even as the president privately acknowledged to the Washington Post\u2019s Bob Woodward that it had the potential to be catastrophic. But as it became clearer that the public was not buying the rosy assessments, Trump had decided to take his fate into his own hands \u2014 assembling the press on a daily basis to spin his way through the crisis.<\/p>\n
He loved it. The former administration official said Trump was elated with the free airtime he was getting on television day after day. \u201cHe was asking how much money that was worth,\u201d the aide recalled. The coverage was so ubiquitous that, at one point, Fox News\u2019 Bret Baier attended the briefing and peppered the president with questions because his own show was being routinely interrupted.<\/p>\n
The bleach episode changed all that.<\/p>\n
Aides immediately understood what a public health quagmire Trump\u2019s remarks had created. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted he was being taken out of context.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday\u2019s briefing,\u201d McEnany said in a statement issued the next day. \u201cLeave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n
But behind the scenes, Trump\u2019s remarks were used as evidence by senior aides for why they needed to crack down on unvetted information being put in front of the president. \u201cEither they didn’t know what he was going to say \u2014 which isn’t ideal \u2014 or they didn’t push back before he went out to the briefing,\u201d said a former senior communications official in the Trump administration. \u201cIt was a huge unforced error that could have been prevented.”<\/p>\n
By then, White House aides were already debating the efficacy of having Trump relay health information to the public and having to answer whatever question a reporter might throw his way. Some aides \u2014 along with Republican allies on Capitol Hill \u2014 were pushing to get the president to take a back seat to his health experts at the podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became like a presser for the sake of having a presser. We didn\u2019t have anything to announce or real policy plans,\u201d a former White House official said. \u201cIf you\u2019re just coming out and talking, a Q&A [with reporters] wasn\u2019t going to be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump would end up doing only a handful more press conferences after the bleach episode before picking them back up again in July. A year later, the episode is still considered a defining point in the Covid fight and a prime exhibit of what can go wrong when an over-confident president believes he can message his way through a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cUndoubtedly [it was] a seminal moment in presidential communications, and while it is easy to laugh it off, I hope it educates leaders and communicators for decades,\u201d said former Obama White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. \u201cBut this was the moment where we knew without any doubt that the government was in way over its head, and its ability to both respond effectively and educate Americans about what to do was not going to be anywhere close to meeting the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n