MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” namesake Joe Scarborough implied Thursday that President Trump is somehow profiting off hydroxychloroquine, which the president has hailed as a possible treatment for COVID-19.
“You have the president running around doing fundraisers without a mask in a crowd of people. You have him retweeting woman talking about demons and other bizarre things, mocking masks, talking about hydroxychloroquine which [former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner] Scott Gottlieb and just about every other medical professional says, ‘It does not work on this disease,’” Scarborough said.
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“It doesn’t work. I don’t know who’s making money, right, but follow the money,” Scarborough said as his wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski added, “You have to ask that question.”
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” namesake Joe Scarborough implied that President Trump is somehow profiting off hydroxychloroquine.
“Follow the money, for someone to continue to bring up hydroxychloroquine, you have to ask, ‘What’s the money connection?’ Because it makes no sense to continue to push the drug as the president continues to do that doesn’t work, that every medical professional says doesn’t work,” Scarborough said.
The debate about the antimalarial drug has been raging for weeks and critics of Trump have accused him of overselling an unproven treatment. At one point, Trump even said he was taking the drug himself.
Back in April Brzezinski suggested Trump had a “financial tie” to hydroxychloroquine.
"A lot of people would say, follow the money. There’s got to be some sort of financial tie to someone, somewhere that has the president pushing this repeatedly,” Brzezinski said at the time.
Months later, the polarizing drug is still prominently in the news.
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Earlier this week, Twitter removed a video that was promoted on Trump’s account showing what appeared to be doctors in Washington praising the benefits of using hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients.
The video, which was widely shared on social media, appeared to include about a dozen doctors standing in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington. It was unclear when the video was shot.
The video made spectacular claims about the treatment that essentially called it all but a cure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no specific antiviral treatment recommended for COVID-19.
"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin has also suggested that Trump may have a financial interest in promoting the drug.
Ohio pharmacies, clinics and other medical facilities are now prohibited from dispensing or selling hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus.
State regulations were updated on Wednesday to reflect the change but also included several caveats, such as if the prescription is for a pet or if it is part of a clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of the drug when used to fight COVID-19.
Fox News’ Edmund DeMarche and Nick Givas contributed to this report.