WATCH: 'I didn't do it,' Trump says of disbanding pandemics office

As the United States grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump said on Friday that he didn't know "anything about" a reorganization of the National Security Council that dismantled a key pandemics team two years ago. The head of that team, Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, left suddenly after the team was disbanded in 2018; he had been tasked with how the country responds to a threat like the novel coronavirus. When Trump was asked by the PBS NewsHour's Yamiche Alcindor about whether he took responsibility for the decision, the president called it a nasty question, saying it wasn't him and gesturing to other members of his administration that were part of a group of people that make decisions. "We're doing a great job," he added. The number of cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. has climbed above 1,600, and public health officials have shared concern in recent days that the U.S. does not have enough tests or hospital beds, among other supplies, to handle a widespread outbreak.