Mika Brzezinski to Dr. Birx: I Hope ‘Scientists at the Top Don’t Get Bullied by the President’

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski spoke directly to Dr. Deborah Birx on Friday about her comments on the Covid-19 pandemic. The Morning Joe host addressed Birx by name live on air and voiced her concerns about President Donald Trump’s approach to the crisis.

Birx is a prominent member of the Coronavirus task force who made headlines on Thursday for downplaying concerns about ventilators and Do Not Resuscitate orders. Brzezinski questioned why Birx made the comments, which were quickly seized upon by the President’s supporters.

“I have to question why Dr. Birx chose to say that during the press conference yesterday,” Brzezinski said.

“You’re hearing from the front lines across the country they are in dire need of equipment and supplies and they have people overrunning the hospital,” she said.

“And here’s The Washington Post, ‘But as cases mount amid a national shortage of personal protective equipment or PPE, hospitals are beginning to implement emergency measures that will either minimize, modify or completely stop the use of certain procedures on patients with Covid-19. They’re bound by oath to do everything they can but they don’t have the ability to do everything they can because they don’t have the supplies and they are overrun.'”

“Explain to me, Dr. Birx, if I may, because I’m very concerned at the pressure top scientists at the White House are being put under by President Trump.”

“I want to understand why Bellevue hospital has a makeshift morgue. Why the New York Times was able to get ER, video out of an ER of patient after patient after patient just lying there dying with Covid-19,” Brzezinski said.

“The front lines are telling a very different story. And I really hope the scientists at the top don’t get bullied by the president because we need you.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.