Trump Spox Hogan Gidley, When Confronted on ‘Ending Pandemic’ Claim: ‘I’m Not Going to Quibble About Semantics’

Hogan Gidley, press secretary for President Donald Trump’s campaign, was grilled about the claim that one of Trump’s accomplishments has been “ending the Covid-19 pandemic,” and responded by referring to the false claim as a matter of “semantics.”

On Wednesday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, anchor Alisyn Camerota jumped right into her interview with Gidley by pressing him about the White House Science Policy Office’s claim that among Trump’s first-term accomplishments is “ending the Covid-19 pandemic” — which is currently setting records for daily cases and killing around a thousand people a day.

“How can ending the pandemic be the top accomplishment of the White House?” Camerota asked.

“Well look, I think the president took leadership on this issue very early on when so many on the left refused to acknowledge it,” Gidley said, launching into a moderate-length dodge riddled with false and misleading claims.

“But do you think he’s ended it? Do you think the White House has ended it?” Camerota said as Gidley continued his patter. “I’m not talking about fighting it, I’m talking about ending it. Do you think that the pandemic has ended?”

“Right. Well, we’re moving in the right direction,” Gidley said of a pandemic that killed at least 985 people on Tuesday. “I think that’s what the president’s been talking about on the campaign trail, we’re seeing a reduction in deaths by 70% from the middle of March.”

“But almost a thousand people still died,” Camerota interrupted as Gidley plowed on. “Hogan I’m just talking about the language. Why does it say as the top accomplishment, ending the COVID-19 pandemic? Do you think it has ended?”

“I didn’t write, I didn’t write the document, I don’t know who said that, the president’s not saying that on the campaign trail,” Gidley said, as Camerota coaxed “But you think that’s erroneous. Okay, so that part’s wrong.”

“I don’t know I’ve not seen the document, I’m just telling you we’re moving the right direction,” Gidley said, to which Camerota interjected, “But I’m reading it to you.”

“But if the document said ending, that would be wrong,” Camerota repeated.

“I’m not looking at the document, I don’t know what the document says or how it characterizes the word ‘ending,’ but I’m not going to quibble over semantics,” Gidley said. “The fact is we’re moving the right direction.”

Three days ago, Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows declared “We’re not going to control the pandemic” in an interview with Jake Tapper.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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