Trump economic advisor caught on hot mic swearing about Kamala Harris

‘I did use cuss words and I apologise and I won’t do that again’

A former member of  Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force was caught by a Fox News hot mic describing comments made by vice president Kamala Harris about the previous administration’s vaccine distribution as “bull****t”.

On Tuesday, Larry Kudlow, who served as a member of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force while working as the director of the National Economic Council, appeared on America Reports on Fox Business to plug the launch of his new weekday show that debuted on the network later that day.

During America Reports, a clip was played of Ms Harris during an interview with Axios on HBO on Sunday, where the vice president said that the Biden administration was “starting from scratch” on vaccine distribution.

Ms Harris criticised the Trump administration’s vaccine rollout plans, claiming: “We were leaving it to the states or local leaders to try and figure it out, and so in many ways we’re starting from scratch on something that’s been raging for almost an entire year.”

While the clip of Ms Harris was played, an off-screen Mr Kudlow could be heard saying: “bulls***t! bull***t! bulls***t!”.

Producers were eventually able to cut Mr Kudlow’s mic feed, as the presenters apologised and host Sandra Smith said: “That is Larry Kudlow weighing in… Wow.”

During the debut of his show later in the day, Mr Kudlow also apologised for his language, but once again criticised Ms Harris for her remarks.

“Earlier on Fox News Channel, I made some comments about that clip, you might have read about it, if not you could Google it,” Mr Ludlow said.

“I may have said a bad word,” he continued. “I’m not usually a guy who swears but what the vice president said burned me up and it’s simply not true, okay? It is somewhere between cognitive dissonance and an outright falsehood lie.”

Mr Ludlow then conceded that “not everything went perfectly” with the Trump administration’s plan, but still called the rollout a “triumph”.

He later added: “I did use cuss words and I apologise and I won’t do that again.”

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, defended Ms Harris for her remarks on CNN despite previously saying the vaccination programme was “not” starting from scratch with the new administration.

“What I think the Vice President is referring to is, the actual plan of getting the vaccine doses into people’s arms was really rather vague. I mean, it was not a well-coordinated plan.”

He added: “That’s something that we had to get much better organised, now with getting the community vaccine centres, getting the pharmacies involved, getting mobile units involved, so that’s what I believe she was referring to.”

Mr Kudlow, who was also part of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine rollout plan, falsely claimed in February 2020 that Covid-19 had been “contained” before it spread through the US.

He also falsely claimed that “there is no second wave coming” in July 2020, when the US had recorded just 2.3 million Covid-19 cases and 120,000 fatalities.

According to Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 27.7 million people who have tested positive for the coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached 488,081.