a statement based on the best information he had at the time, which was this was not a serious threat to the US. Which is what practically EVERYONE was saying up until March 1st or thereabouts.
In hindsight it looks bad now, but since the Media are pretending that EVERYONE knew that it was going to be as bad as it has gotten and Trump ignored them all we're going to get quotes like this coming up that show no, everyone didn't know how bad it would become back in January.