White House trade adviser Peter Navarro insisted on CNN Sunday that President Donald Trump used “tongue-in-cheek” humor when he said he ordered officials to slow coronavirus testing to suppress the number of reported COVID-19 cases.
“When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find ... more cases,” Trump said at his campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday. “So I said to my people, ’Slow the testing down, please.’”
CNN host Jake Tapper played the clip for Navarro on “State of the Union” and asked him about it.