The media's "bombshell" anti-Trump coronavirus report that relied heavily on unnamed sources has just been crushed by the Pentagon.
The report, which was spread by ABC News and other MSM outlets, claimed a November intelligence assessment warned about a rapidly spreading coronavirus in China that posed a threat to American forces in the region. Unsurprisingly, ABC's report was based on sources who weren't identified.
The media ran with the story and attempted to discredit Trump with it by claiming that his administration knew about the dangers of the coronavirus back in November but didn't act on it.
But there's one big problem. The ABC report referenced a report that does not even exist, the director of the NCMI revealed to Fox News on record. Here's more:
A defense official on Wednesday issued a rare denial of reports by ABC News and others that claimed a November intelligence assessment warned about a rapidly spreading coronavirus in China that posed a threat to American forces in the region.
The official said no such assessment existed.
ABC News cited unnamed officials with knowledge of the assessment by the military's National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) that raised concerns of the coronavirus and highlighted how it was disputing daily life and business in the area.
Col. R. Shane Day, the director of the NCMI, a component of the Defense Intelligence Agency, refuted the ABC News report in a statement.
"As a matter of practice the National Center for Medical Intelligence does not comment publicly on specific intelligence matters," he said. "However, in the interest of transparency during this current public health crisis, we can confirm that media reporting about the existence/release of a National Center for Medical Intelligence Coronavirus-related product/assessment in November of 2019 is not correct. No such NCMI product exists."
Busted!
Odd that ABC would report this as "fact" when the official response is that no such NCMI report even exists. They got caught making stuff up and they still want to act like it's factual.
After ABC aired the false report, the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) and NCMI have been searching for any report that might possibly fit what ABC described. The search came up empty.
And you wonder why we call them fake news.
The left is so desperate to discredit Trump during this pandemic that they'll stop at nothing, including flat out lying.