Tony's Diary Package — page 75

The "swag" around me is getting really ridiculous. You can but Fauci T-shirts, mugs, donuts, sweat shirts, candles, pillows, etc. Geeeez!! I do not like this one bit. AMAZING interaction with POTUS. Today Trump tweeted that he was considering quarantining the NY tri-state area (NYC, NJ. CN). This triggered a major news buzz. Gov. Cuomo called me; I was in my NIH office getting ready to do the Saturday TF meeting from the NIH SCIF. Cuomo asked me to help dissuade the POTUS since he (Cuomo) would have to forcibly push back on this and would defy National Guard troops sent to enforce the Q. At the TF meeting we had major discussions lead by VP. I helped convince people that a quarantine was not tenable and that we should recommend to POTUS to do a "strong travel advisory" that the governors would strongly support instead of having the Feds enforce a quarantine. I thought that I was finished for the night and would go home to an evening off when the VP said I should come down to his office and we should, together with Deb, Chad Wolff, Steve Mnuchin, Mark Meadows, Marc Short meet with the POTUS to tell him our recommendation to announce tomorrow. We met with the POTUS in the living quarters (not the OVAL) for about 1 hour. I led the discussions since the POTUS kept referring to me. It was a disturbingly rambling discussion since he kept talking about TV ratings, and HC, and influenza and virtually everything else as I was trying to keep him on track (with the help of the VP). Finally, we got him to agree to "travel advisory" and not quarantine. We wanted to announce tomorrow, but he wanted to tweet this tonight. He also said he wanted to get the Governors on board and so he wanted to call Gov Cuomo (NY), Gov Murphy (NJ), Gov. Ned Lamont (CN). And so, we adjourned to the Lincoln Study and finalized the language for the Advisory right at the Lincoln desk where the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. I kept insisting that they do not slip and let the CDC (from whom the Advisory must come) to use their words of "DO NOT TRAVEL". Also, I insisted through the rambling and lack of attention span that the POTUS explicitly say that this is NOT a quarantine. Finally, he individually called the 3 Governors starting off by saying "I am here with Tony and a few other people....." Cuomo was OK but questioned to be explicit as to just what "Advisory" meant. We go it straightened out and before he went to the other Govs, he called up Sean Hannity to schmooze about TV ratings (I am not kidding). Finally, he got to the other Governors and we stopped for the nigh. Marc Short will work with CDC to get the right language out and the POTUS will tweet this later. I texted Cuomo saying that I had pushed back and we had avoided the quarantine. He responded: "I know that. It wasn't his conscience. He would have made a terrible mistake for the nation. I would have had to organize the Governors to rebel. Last thing we need. Thank you....on behalf of all of us." WHAT A NIGHT!!!