Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield's Senate testimony that a coronavirus vaccine won't be rolled out widely until next year was not based on the correct timetable, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Thursday.
"I'm not sure where Dr. Redfield got his particular timetable, but it's not based on those that are closest to the process," Meadows said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
Meadows' comments echoed those of President Donald Trump, who told reporters Wednesday that he thinks Redfield made a "mistake" when he told a Senate panel that the vaccine could be rolled out by the middle of next year or later, and accused him of being "confused" and misunderstanding the question.
"I would tell you if I were a betting man I would bet on President Trump based on what I know behind the scenes about how quickly we are moving on the clinical trials," Meadows said. "I think that we will at least have some results in October. As we start to look at those results, I can tell you the president is pushing very hard to make sure that we are delivering a vaccine before the end of the year."
Meadows also slammed Democrat nominee Joe Biden for saying he would not trust a vaccine being pushed through by Trump.
He added he'd encourage Biden to call on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to push through a COVID-19 bill and urged lawmakers to embrace a $1.5 trillion package proposed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers and backed by Trump.
Also Thursday, Meadows said he will meet with airline CEOs Thursday as workers in the industry face massive layoffs.
"We've got tens of thousands of people that are about to be laid off," he said. "If nothing more, let's go ahead and put that package on the floor and pass that because hopefully all of us can agree that laying off airline workers at this particular time is not something we should do."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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