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White House pressured CDC on reopening schools, officials say
White House officials pressured the CDC to downplay the coronavirus to encourage reopening schools, CBS News confirmed.
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Weijia Jiang is CBS News' senior White House correspondent based in Washington, D.C. Jiang's reporting is featured across all CBS News broadcasts and platforms, including the "CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell," "CBS Mornings" and the CBS News 24/7, CBS News' premier 24/7 anchored streaming news service.
Jiang has covered the White House beat since 2018, including the transition between the Trump and Biden administrations. She has also reported extensively on the increased violence against the AAPI community and the resulting policy changes. Jiang has traveled on Air Force One on several occasions, both domestically and abroad. She has covered major stories for the Network including the President's impeachments, the 2020 Presidential campaign and election, and the confirmations of Judges Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. During her coverage of the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the answers to her questions during press briefings often made news. In 2023, Jiang won an Emmy award for her contributions to "CBS Mornings."
Jiang joined CBS News in 2015 as a correspondent for Newspath, the Network's 24-hour television newsgathering service for CBS stations and broadcasters around the world. Since then, she has reported extensively on both the Obama and Trump administrations, the 2016 presidential campaign and election, the funeral of former first lady Barbara Bush; and the congressional baseball shooting that wounded Rep. Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.). She has also covered a number of national stories such as Hurricane Harvey, the catastrophic Category 4 hurricane that hit Texas in 2017.
Before coming to CBS News, Jiang was a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor at WCBS-TV in New York (2012-2015) where she covered Superstorm Sandy; the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.; and the Boston Marathon bombings.
Previously, Jiang worked at WJZ-TV in Baltimore (2008-2012) and WBOC-TV in Salisbury, Md. (2006-2008) where she was honored with an Edward R. Murrow Award and an Associated Press Award for feature reporting. When she was a graduate school candidate in 2006, she worked for WBRE-TV in Scranton, Penn., as a Washington, D.C.-based reporter. She discovered her passion for broadcasting at the age of 13 as a student reporter and anchor for Channel One News in Los Angeles.
Jiang graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a minor in chemistry, and from Syracuse University in 2006 with a master's degree in broadcast journalism. In 2012, she was inducted into the prestigious Professional Gallery at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. In 2023, Jiang won an at-large seat on the White House Correspondents' Association Board and will be the first woman of color to serve as president in 2025-2026. She is an active member of the Asian American Journalists Association.
She was born in Xiamen, China, and raised in West Virginia, where she immigrated with her parents when she was 2 years old. She currently resides in Washington, D.C. with her husband and their daughter and son.
White House officials pressured the CDC to downplay the coronavirus to encourage reopening schools, CBS News confirmed.
During the session, Caputo said scientists "haven't gotten out of their sweatpants except for meetings at coffee shops" to plot "how they're going to attack Donald Trump next."
But Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she won't let federal troops terrorize her city.
After months of downplaying the importance of face coverings, Mr. Trump tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask.
"I don't want to exaggerate. But that's basically what you're telling us to do. Save the world and do it in three months."
Peter Navarro, White House trade adviser, claimed Fauci "has been wrong about everything I have ever interacted with him on."
Ford sources contradicted the president's stance on mask-wearing during a trip to the Michigan plant.
Trump allies are looking for pro-Trump doctors who can tout the president's point of view amid tensions between public health and economic health.
The executive order also applies to plants that have already closed, which will have to re-open with healthy workers.