nancy messonier. the director of the national center for immunization and respiratory diseases. she infuriated the president after warning, in late february, that severe illnesses in the u.s. related to the coronavirus were not a question of if, but when. the president got the news as he boarded air force one in india, to head home. he then cancelled a meeting with top health experts about mitigating the virus, after he heard what messonier had said and the stock market crashed. trump's skepticism for science extends well beyond the covid crisis. it's been a threat throughout his term. from pulling out of the paris climate accord, to ripping up environmental regulations. even disputing the paths of hur kans. hurricanes. >> that was the original chart. >> last september, showing a map of the path of hurricane dorian. the president changed with a sharpie to include alabama. even though meteorologists said there would be no impact on the state. >> the president, of course, is not a fan of anyone whose messages run counter to his. so, after dr. nancy messonier spoke out in february,

nancy messonier one of the country's top public health experts warned there would be severe disruptionsfe. instead of that briefing the president was set to receive upon his return from india to implement the social distancing guidelines the president held a news conference putting vice president mike pence in charge of the coronavirus efforts. and from there we know that the white house's response began to shift, focusing especially on public messaging, trying to assure the american people that they had the response under control. we also know that beyond that briefing and beyond those conclusions by those public health experts there were warnings inside the trump administration in january as well as in february. we reported of course on the memo by peter navarro, the president's trade adviser, in late january warning of trillions of dollars in economic losses and that millions of americans could be infected with this virus. we also know that the deputy national security adviser matt pottinger, he was also sounding the alarm back in january about the potential for a global pandemic. th

nancy messonier from the cdc that same week was saying that the u.s. needs to prepare for community spread. and so the president is trying to rewrite history here and say that the experts were telling him at the time that there wasn't going to be a problem whvg we have video, we have audio, and we know that's not the case. i can tell you, erin, talking to my sources, surrogates at the white house, trump campaign surrogates, putting out really talking points to reporters trying to pin the blame on the experts. people like dr. fauci and saying they're the ones who are giving the president the bad information. it was really perfect that you played that video from dr. redfield from the cdc moments ago. because as you'll recall earlier today the president was saying, well, the worst of the pandemic might be behind us. he said that in the east room of the white house. when of course we don't know whether or not that's the case. and as dr. redfield was saying and dr. fauci, they've both said the coronavirus will be still around and it could combine with the f

. >> reporter: for weeks the cdc's top respiratory disease doctor nancy messonier said the coronavirusld become a pandemic. on february 25th she caught trump's attention. >> we are asking the american public to work with us to prepare in the expectation that this could be bad. >> reporter: trump and some of his aides were furious, believing she overstated the threat, sources said. a day later trump appeared, offering reassurances rather than warnings. >> and we'll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner. we're ready for it. we're really prepared. >> reporter: americans didn't buy it. trump was pummeled in the press. schools were closing down. americans started working from home. investors were panicking. an oval office address -- >> my fellow americans -- >> reporter: -- failed to fix any of it. there was a turning point when advisers privately pressed trump to view himself as a wartime president. this is a war, they told him, and experts like dr. anthony fauci and dr. deborah birx are your generals. the economy, they assured him, would bounce back once the virus

nancy messonier from the cdc, she was not only removed from her post after that briefing as the lead cdc official running the response to coronavirus, she was not only removed from her post because the president didn't like that she seemed so alarmist about the whole thing in that briefing, in addition to taking her out of that position, the cdc as an agency also thereafter stopped doing its own briefings altogether about this crisis because the cdc briefings had the potential to upset the president, because we have since learned he likes to do the briefings himself. and instead of cdc briefings from well-informed officials giving you real information about the real scope of what's about to happen, he, you know, gets up there and tells you there's only going to be 50,000 americans dead by the end of this. only 50,000. would that that were true? and, you know, he likes to tell you there's a cure that everybody should try. what do you have to lose? just try this unproven drug. and he likes to say almost every single day, there's plenty of testing. he's now saying that there's so much t