Kellyanne Conway tried to keep Fauci, Birx off TV amid COVID pandemic: Farah Griffin

Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway discouraged the Trump administration from having top doctors speak on national television about the coronavirus pandemic, former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin told the House panel investigating Jan. 6, 2021.

Farah Griffin, who served as the head of White House communications in 2020, said Conway and other members of the campaign team advised the president to refrain from talking about COVID-19 because it was not “driving home a message” for the campaign.

Conway told the president that putting doctors, including coronavirus response coordinators Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, on television drove his numbers down and “scared” people over the pandemic, according to Farah Griffin’s testimony.

“The president told me point blank to not have them on TV anymore,” Farah Griffin added.

Conway said this was “false” when reached for comment.

Farah Griffin told the panel it was a constant battle.

“That was something, a battle I was always dealing with is don’t put the doctors on TV, don’t talk about — just don’t talk about coronavirus in general.”

Farah Griffin’s solution to this problem was to place top doctors, like Birx and Fauci, on regional television in areas with large outbreaks for hours at a time because “no one would notice.” She said when she would sparingly put Birx or Fauci on national TV, she would get “yelled at” by Conway.

In her book published in April, Birx said her first meeting with Trump lasted about 30 seconds before he turned on Fox News and she was ushered out of the room. She said she warned Trump that COVID-19 was not like the flu and could turn deadly, but Trump dismissed her concerns quickly.

Birx told a House committee in June that Trump’s downplaying of the coronavirus gave Americans a “false sense of security.” She said clear and concise messaging from the White House was needed to manage the pandemic, but the miscommunication resulted in “inaction early on.”

Updated at 11:53 a.m. Dec. 30.

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