HHS secretary Alex Azar "directly warned Trump of the possibility of a pandemic during a call on Jan. 30, the second warning he delivered to the president about the virus in two weeks. The president...responded that Mr. Azar was being alarmist." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-response.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/1...

"Trump fumed as he watched the stock market crash after Dr. Messonnier’s comments. Furious, he called Mr. Azar when he landed at around 6 a.m. on Feb. 26, raging that Dr. Messonnier had scared people unnecessarily." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-response.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/1...

"The number of infections in the US started to surge through Feb and early March, but the admin did not move to place large-scale orders for masks and other protective equipment, or critical hospital equipment such as ventilators. Pentagon sat on standby& #39; https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-response.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/1...

This is a key detail from the new NYT expose. Senators directly told administration officials that they would need more money for the response in early Feb. Those officials replied that they didn& #39;t need any more funding:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-response.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/1...

This new NYT reporting confirms to the letter the detailed account that @ChrisMurphyCT gave me in an interview, in which he described these early meetings:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/30/no-national-strategy-one-senators-alarming-account-first-days/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/...

Here& #39;s another key detail from the NYT:

Coronavirus "took a back seat" to Trump& #39;s "desire not to upset Beijing during trade talks."

It& #39;s only *later* that Trump lurched around to blaming China, after he needed to shift blame for what was happening:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-response.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/1...

Importantly, this new reporting delivers another hard blow to the Trump campaign& #39;s whole campaign narrative (captured in that disgusting new ad) that Biden was soft on China and coronavirus: https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1248695817730428929">https://twitter.com/ThePlumLi...