this from shane harris, and a team of washington post reporters. quote, u.s. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous classified warnings in january and february about the global danger posed by the coronavirus while president trump and lawmakers played down the threat and failed to take action that might have slowed the threat of the pathogen -- slowed the spread of the pathogen. the intelligence reports did not predict when the virus might land on u.s. shores or recommend particular steps as public health officials should take. the spread of the that in china and warned chinese officials seem to be minimizing the severity of the outbreak. a virus that showed the characteristics of globally circling -- globally circling pandemic. despite the constant flow of reporting, trump continued publicly and privately playing down the threat of the virus posed to americans. lawmakers too did not grapple with the virus in earnest until this month as officials scramble to keep citizens in their homes and hospitals bracing for a surge in patients suffering from covid-19.

the post's shane harris, who is a reporter, shares the byline. he joins us by phone.-- explain wha were being told. >> it was being disseminated across the congressional delegation and intelligence committee, that what was happening in china looked like the makings of a pandemic. these would have been available to people in the administration and lawmakers. building this picture of january and february of an outbreak that was not only characteristics of something that was going to have global spread but importantly including from classified sources indicated the chinese government was not being forthcoming about how bad the situation really was. that's important because experts have said in those early days of the outbreak in wuhan, the chinese government didn't move quickly enough and didn't tell the world enough about what it understood about the virus. that is information that at least in the classified channel was available to key u.s. policy makers as early as january. >> is it known how much of this, you know, would end up in briefings that the president would r

this from shane harris, and a team of washington post reporters. quote, u.s.ntelligence agencies were issuing ominous classified warnings in january and february about the global danger posed by the coronavirus while president trump and lawmakers played down the threat and failed to take action that might have slowed the threat of the pathogen -- slowed the spread of the pathogen. the intelligence reports did not predict when the virus might land on u.s. shores or recommend particular steps as public health officials should take. the spread of the that in china and warned chinese officials seem to be minimizing the severity of the outbreak. a virus that showed the characteristics of globally circling -- globally circling pandemic. despite the constant flow of reporting, trump continued publicly and privately playing down the threat of the virus posed to americans. lawmakers too did not grapple with the virus in earnest until this month as officials scramble to keep citizens in their homes and hospitals bracing for a surge in patients suffering from covid-19. t