White House sidelines HHS Secretary Azar from coronavirus response

[left-of-center2012]

The White House on Wednesday benched Azar from a coronavirus task force press briefing, the latest sign of diminished standing for an official who was the face of the U.S. response to the disease just a week ago.

Azar's absence didn't go unnoticed by allies worried about his standing in the administration and the way he's catching more flak for missteps. Azar was front and center Thursday at a Capitol Hill briefing with House members, during which he took heat from some lawmakers over transparency and whether his department is adequately prepared for the stealthy disease.

Asked why Azar didn’t attend Wednesday's televised briefing, a Pence spokesperson said that Azar left for his office after the task force meeting, and officials wanted to make room on stage for Ben Carson, the Housing and Urban Development secretary and also a task force member.

The health secretary has in the last week emerged as a target inside and outside the administration, as officials look to apportion blame for a U.S. outbreak that caught federal officials by surprise.

It’s the latest frustration for Azar, who handled every major coronavirus announcement in January and most of February, but had little advance warning before Pence replaced him last Wednesday night as the leader of the task force.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/05/white-house-alex-azar-coronavirus-122250

[Ilsa]

1. Another turd afraid of hurting the Bunghole's feelings.

Doesn't deserve an atom's weight of sympathy.

[captain queeg]

2. That's really going to help people feel like the govt is responding

Doesn’t Donnie dipstick ever change course? No, don’t answer. He just keeps try to go down the same path and doubles down. It usually works for him but I’ll predict another bad day on the stock market. That’s the only indicator he cares about.

[empedocles]

3. Need some strong State gov or UN people to stand up, push trump aside

[vlyons]

4. Azar didn't lie often enough or well enough to lawmakers

to please Donny Dimwit. He also didn't have a hissy fit blaming Obama. And oh yes, Hillary's emails and Biden's son.

They just never learn that Donny Dimwit will ALWAYS throw them under the bus, when convenient to assign blame.