White House defends decision to prevent top health official from testifying in House

Accusing the House Democrats of not acting in "good faith", White House on Wednesday defended the decision to prevent top health official Anthony Fauci from appearing before a House panel over Trump administration's COVID-19 response.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, in an afternoon briefing, said, "The House, however, and specifically Chairwoman Nita Lowey's committee, did not act in good faith."

"Those details were never received and instead we got a press release. So, that's what we call a publicity stunt," Mc Ennany was quoted by The Hill.

This comes a day after President Donald Trump told reporters that White House would prevent Fauci from appearing before the Democrat-controlled House.

Meanwhile, House Appropriations Committee spokesperson Evan Hollander said that Trump has admitted of blocking the Fauci from testifying.

"You don't have to be a Nobel Prize winner to understand why the House committee that funds health care programs wanted Dr Fauci to appear at a hearing on coronavirus response," Hollander said in an emailed statement.

"President Trump already admitted that he blocked Dr Fauci from testifying for political reasons, and any other comment from the White House is just spin."

Fauci's absence from Wednesday from the hearing drew bipartisan rebuke. More than 1.2 million cases of coronavirus have been reported from the US with the death toll exceeding 70,000.

( With inputs from ANI )