To Investigate, or Not

For John, BLUF:  I think if it is a fair investigation it will show that everyone was a little slow off the mark and that preparations as far back as the end of the Arnold Schwarzenegger Administration in California was not properly preparing.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Pelosi Forms Committee to Investigate Trump Handling of Coronavirus Pandemic

Here is the sub-headline:

Committee focus supposed to be on spending of stimulus funds, but has broad enough scope and subpoena power to turn into another impeachment-style fiasco in the middle of a national crisis.

From Legal Insurrection, by Mr Mike LaChance, 2 April 2020.

Background is important.

Go to this InstaPundit link to see Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging people, on 24 February of this year, to visit Chinatown, in San Francisco (Grant Avenue).

Poor timing.

Here is how the numbers built up in the United States (thanks to Wikipedia):

The disease notched up about 12 February, and then took off.  A week after Speaker Pelosi's tour of Chinatown we have an inflection point and the total confirmed infections takes off.

So, the question is, what did she know and when did she know it?

On 20 March The Washington Post published an article claiming, based on a single source, that the President and Legislators were warned in January and February.  So, did Ms Pelosi and Mr Schiff dismiss the intelligence provided by the Intelligence Community?  Here are the first three paragraphs of the article:

U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February about the global danger posed by the coronavirus while President Trump and lawmakers played down the threat and failed to take action that might have slowed the spread of the pathogen, according to U.S. officials familiar with spy agency reporting.

The intelligence reports didn’t predict when the virus might land on U.S. shores or recommend particular steps that public health officials should take, issues outside the purview of the intelligence agencies.  But they did track the spread of the virus in China, and later in other countries, and warned that Chinese officials appeared to be minimizing the severity of the outbreak.

Taken together, the reports and warnings painted an early picture of a virus that showed the characteristics of a globe-encircling pandemic that could require governments to take swift actions to contain it.  But despite that constant flow of reporting, Trump continued publicly and privately to play down the threat the virus posed to Americans.  Lawmakers, too, did not grapple with the virus in earnest until this month, as officials scrambled to keep citizens in their homes and hospitals braced for a surge in patients suffering from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

And, of course, what was the role of the World Health Organization?  They declared a Pandemic on 11 March 2020.  So Speaker Pelosi, if she believed what WHO was saying, at the behest of the Chinese, has clean skirts.  President Trump was a bit ahead of her, with a 31 January ban on Chinese movement to the United States.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff