Alyssa Farah Griffin says Meadows prevented her from trying to stop Trump COVID ‘bleach’ debacle
Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin told the House Jan. 6 select committee that she tried to stop former President Trump from receiving a report that led to his infamous coronavirus pandemic press conference asking if there was a way to use disinfectants “by injection inside or almost a cleaning.”
Griffin said that when she was on the coronavirus task force she tried to stop the Department of Homeland Security report that was initially sent to then-Vice President Mike Pence from getting to Trump, according to testimony released Thursday.
Pence thought that the report that people should consider exposing the body to light, heat and disinfectants as a potential treatment for the coronavirus was “interesting” and that Trump should be “briefed” on it.
“I tried to stop it outside of the Oval Office, because I knew the President was willing to go on national television, have not been able to properly digest what the report was indicating, and say something stupid or dangerous to the public, Griffin said in the newly released transcripts of her April depositions with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
She shared details of the moment after being asked if there was anyone at the Trump White House who would act as a “gatekeeper” to stop misinformation from reaching the president. She said that while the role was supposed to be fulfilled by chief of staff Mark Meadows, she never saw anyone do the job “effectively.”
Griffin further elaborated that she went to Meadows to warn him that this would “blow up in our faces.”
“And I went to Mark Meadows, and I said, Sir, this is going to blow up in our faces. He’s not ready. Like, what are we encouraging? Are we saying like, you know, go buy a humidifier? Do we want to put a run on humidifiers? Or turn your heat up to 95 degrees? Like, it just didn’t make any sense,” she said.
“And Meadows overruled me, and we got the injecting bleach thing.”
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, Trump suggested in a press conference, “So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn’t been checked but you’re going to test it.”
“And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting,” he added.
After loud criticism of his comments, Trump later said he was being sarcastic.
Griffin, who is now a co-host of ABC’s “The View,” previously tweeted in April that she had “tried to stop the famous ‘injecting bleach’ press conference in the West Wing before it happened.”
She resigned from the Trump administration in December 2020, after Trump lost reelection. She told Politico in January 2021 that she stepped down “because I saw where this was heading, and I wasn’t comfortable being a part of sharing this message to the public that the election results might go a different way.”
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