DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement after a report that senior Trump administration officials pressured the CDC to release new guidance recommending less COVID-19 testing:

“This president has stooped so low he’s staring up at rock bottom. The Trump administration is playing politics with people’s lives, lying to the American public, pressuring the CDC to release dangerous and irresponsible guidance that will cost even more lives, and muzzling the very doctors and public health experts trying to contain this pandemic, which has only worsened because of Trump’s chaos and incompetence. The CDC is not an arm of the Trump campaign, no matter how much this president wants it to be. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris understand we need more testing, not less. We need a president and a vice president with a bold plan to contain this pandemic, not an administration that puts poll numbers ahead of public interest.”