In an interview with Fox News' "Hannity," Trump said that the WHO had "strongly recommended" against America restricting travel from China, one of their earliest flawed pronouncements.
"The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?" Trump also tweeted in early morning April-8.
"The World Health [Organization] -- very China-centric as I say -- basically everything was very positive for China," Trump told host Sean Hannity. "Don't close your borders, they strongly recommended ... That would've been a disaster, that would've been a total disaster. And literally, they called every shot wrong," the president added. "They didn't want to say where [coronavirus] came from. For many years, we've been funding the World Health Organization."
The president noted that while the U.S. financial contribution to the WHO dwarfs that of China, the United Nations entity seems to be very concerned about its relationship with Beijing. "We're going to look at it now because I think every step that they made, everything that they said was wrong and always in favor of China," he said.
"And 'keep it open, don't close the borders'. I didn't listen to them, and I did what I wanted to do, and it was a good move. So it's one of those things where we are the one that is the primary funder so we are going to take a very strong look at that."
U.S. taxpayers contributed $513 million to the WHO in 2017, up from $341 million the prior year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus had claimed Trump's move to restrict travel from China at the end of January would create "fear and stigma with little health benefit."
Scott accused the global health agency of doing "work for Communist China." "At first they said in a tweet [Jan. 14] that there was no evidence that there was human to human transmission. Lie. Then they said on the 20th or something, 'China's doing a great job'. Lie," Scott said.
"When Trump did the right thing by doing the travel ban they attacked Trump for doing the wrong thing," he said. "I asked them [the WHO] to do an investigation of China back in February ... [and] if they had done their job, everyone would have gotten more ready, we wouldn't have shut down this economy and we wouldn't have all these people dead all over the world."
"So I want an investigation," Scott went on. "I am on [the] Homeland Security [committee], I talked to the chairman [Sen.] Ron Johnson [,R-Wis.], he's agreed to do it. We are going to investigate why did they do what they did, what was their purpose and then why are we as American taxpayers giving them some of our dollars."
Scott is the latest Republican lawmaker to demand Tedros step down as director general. Last week, Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., told Fox Business' "Mornings with Maria" that she has "never trusted a communist" and added that the Chinese government's "cover-up of this virus that originated with them has caused unnecessary deaths around America and around the world ... I think Dr. Tedros needs to step down."
McSally stepped up her criticism Friday, saying: "Dr. Tedros deceived the world. At one point, he even praised China's 'transparency during its coronavirus response efforts' despite a mountain of evidence showing the regime concealed the severity of the outbreak. This deception cost lives. "
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday pledged to cut funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Congress's next appropriations bill unless it makes changes to its leadership.
Graham said during an appearance on Fox News that he would use his position as chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign operations to ensure the WHO did not get funding from the U.S.
"I’m not going to support funding the WHO under its current leadership," Graham said. "They’ve been deceptive, they’ve been slow, and they’ve been Chinese apologists. I don’t think they’re a good investment under the current leadership for the United States, and until they change their behavior and get new leadership, I think it’s in America’s best interest to withhold funding because they have failed miserably when it comes to the coronavirus."
Graham's comments came as President Trump on Tuesday repeatedly threatened to cut funding for the WHO, a body of the United Nations responsible for international public health, citing its response to the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
"We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it, and we’re going to see. It’s a great thing if it works, but when they call every shot wrong, that’s not good," Trump said before backtracking and saying that he is still considering the move at this time. Graham said on Fox News that he would "take the burden off the president" by cutting funding to the WHO.
The U.S. is the biggest contributor to the WHO's budget in the world. Trump's fiscal 2021 budget request proposed cutting funding $122 million to about $58 million. The WHO has continually voiced warnings about the dangers of the novel coronavirus since it first appeared in Wuhan, China, last December.
The organization declared that the virus's outbreak was a public emergency of international concern in January and then declared it was a pandemic in mid-March. But the organization said in early February that widespread travel bans were not necessary to prevent the outbreak. Trump on Tuesday accused the WHO of disagreeing with his decision to enforce travel restrictions on incoming flights from China.
His comments came as more Republican lawmakers argue that China and the WHO deserve much of the blame for the global spread of COVID-19. Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) last week called for WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to resign, saying that the organization participated in a Chinese cover-up on coronavirus data. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has also called for a congressional probe into the WHO, accusing it of “helping Communist China cover up” the full extent of the virus’s spread.
