The New York Times reported trade advisor Peter Narvarro warned the White House in a memo in January that the coronavirus pandemic could threaten millions of Americans. Yahoo Finance's Jen Rogers, Myles Udland and Rick Newman discuss.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: Turning more specifically to the administration and, you know, some reporting within the last day suggesting that certain members were flagging concerns related to coronavirus, and I think, Rick Newman, maybe as we move past-- or move into at the full blame game stage of this, I don't think maybe.

I think certainly some members, namely Peter Navarro, would like to claim credit for knowing more about this pandemic than he probably did by leaking, obviously, to "The New York Times" the existence of a memo he wrote back in late January regarding the coronavirus.

RICK NEWMAN: Well, are you concluding that Navarro himself leaked that memo?

MYLES UDLAND: I am concluding that. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to conclude that.

RICK NEWMAN: It's an interesting question. I mean, so the basic story here is, apparently, Navarro did write this memo at the end of January. He wrote this to the task force. The White House had just stood up.

And he said, look, there's a situation developing in China that could hit the United States and become a full blown pandemic. I think that's the phrase he used, full blown pandemic. He predicted a worst case scenario could involve 100 million Americans infected and 1.2 million deaths here in the United States.

And lo and behold, about six weeks later, we got this big report out of the UK basically saying the same thing, very similar projections. And the White House has acknowledged that, not rejected those. Now that was if you do nothing. And we are obviously doing a lot with social distancing and closing businesses.

But yeah, so this is evidence that it was-- there was at least one well-connected guy in the White House circulating this idea. And why Peter Navarro? I mean, he's the trade guy at the White House. So why him? I think it actually makes sense because a big part of his portfolio in the White House is to watch China. And this was-- this obviously originated in Wuhan, China.

And anybody watching China knew what was going on there. And they had a pandemic back in late January. So all you had to be doing was watching China and then knowing that something like this is going to-- you know, it's going to jump borders, which, obviously, it did, and make that prediction. He was not the only one, but he seems to be the only one in the White House at the time, really, taking it seriously.

MYLES UDLAND: Well, and I will say, part of the memo that is quoted in "The New York Times'" story of its existence is Navarro saying that this is not the time for penny pinching. And I think, you know, generally, we walk so often about how the government-- it has been bold, and I think it needs to continue to be bold in its fiscal response.

Because as Keith [INAUDIBLE] said, it's not really a fiscal response. It's basically just rescuing, stopgapping the economy. Like, saying that we are stimulating is completely mischaracterizing what's really happening. We're just trying to get people to stay home and get them from point A to B, and however much money that takes, the government has the ability to print it. And Navarro is saying, don't let that ability go to waste.

JEN ROGERS: Right, Navarro was able to see that ahead of time and really call that out. And I think we have to give credit where credit is due. Whether-- however this got leaked and out, I mean, he was talking about it. I think the bigger issue is how this plays into the Trump administration and the trade war, how they have done business since they got into office, not making friends anywhere.

And when you don't have friends on the other side either of the aisle here in this country or around the world, it makes it very difficult to manage a crisis like this. And also, who the different players are-- who do we believe? Why would this person be saying something when people have been out there antagonizing people?

And so even if you're saying the right thing, if you're not the right messenger and you haven't been playing ball all along, it didn't do anything. And that's really sad at this point, to look back at this memo now.

RICK NEWMAN: Hey, Myles, and I'll just engage in the parlor game a little bit, you know, the inside baseball of how leaks happen. So you do make a point that, obviously, it could have been Navarro himself leaking this. However, the argument against Navarro leaking this would be it would be so self-serving for him to leak his own memo, especially because it would completely contradict the president himself.

I mean, so Navarro-- I think-- my guess is it was not him. I think it got out through some other channel because it would make him look like he was undermining Trump himself. Navarro has been pretty good about not doing that, for what it's worth.

MYLES UDLAND: Yeah, I think that's fair. You know, maybe it's someone on his staff who says, hey, maybe this guy should be getting more credit for this. But, you know, to me, it's like you just-- any source story, you say who benefits the most. That's the source. And that's kind of--

RICK NEWMAN: Well, I'm not sure Navarro benefits because he's going to earn Trump's wrath by coming out and saying, hey, I was telling the president this in late January. And by the way, we don't know if Trump actually saw this memo or not.

MYLES UDLAND: Right, right. Many things circulate in the West Wing in all administrations. It's unclear how far get, no matter the circumstances.