It’s unfortunate that President Trump has to spend so much of his day combating the mainstream media.
During his important press briefings, the President and his team of advisors keep the public up-to-date on the latest informaiton and what the administration is currently doing to fight the COVID pandemic.
The media, however, only seems to want to focus on Trump’s alleged “missteps.” They also can’t seem to understand why the President would say anything positive about his administration’s actions.
Take CNN’s Jeremy Diamond for example.
The reporter admonished the President at Sunday’s press briefing for his “self-congratulations.”
Is President Trump not supposed to take credit for the actions he’s taken against COVID?
Check out the latest on the exchange:
CNN reaped praise on their own reporter in the following article:
Many of the most revealing exchanges at recent W.H. briefings have been prompted by a new generation of correspondents. They're not taking President Trump's not-my-fault routine for an answer. They're pressing, following up and fact-checking in real time.
By now you probably recognize their names: Weijia Jiang and Paula Reid of CBS. Kaitlan Collins and Jeremy Diamond of CNN. Yamiche Alcindor of PBS. Kristin Fisher of Fox News. Francesca Chambers of McClatchy. They're showing that youth can be an asset -- along with persistence. Plus: With social distancing guidelines in effect, a pared-down seating chart means that fewer reporters are physically in the briefing room each day -- which raises the stakes for the reporters who are present.
On Sunday both Jiang and Diamond corrected the president when he pushed faulty info from the podium. Jiang asked Trump "why did you wait so long" to warn the public about the virus, and he defaulted to his travel ban talking point, saying "look at what I did in terms of cutting off of banning China for coming in--"
"Chinese nationals," Jiang said, "but by the way, not Americans who were also coming from China."
Trump snapped: "Nice and easy. Nice and easy. Just relax. We cut it off."
As she followed up, Trump asked her to "keep your voice down" and said she should be thanking him for "closing up the entire country," which he didn't do.
After the briefing, CNN's Dana Bash commented that "the way he treats the female reporters is different..."
When Trump said at the briefing that "almost 40,000" Americans have died from the virus, Diamond correctly interjected, "more than."
"Oh, more than, okay, good, correct me."
"We're at 41,000," Diamond said.
"I am really glad you corrected me, CNN," Trump sneered.
He also attacked Diamond and CNN later on, saying "your ratings are so bad because you are pathetic." The factual part of that statement is provably false. Cable news ratings are at historic highs due to this crisis. Want to know what's really, truly "so bad?" The death toll. Trump seems more emotional about CNN than about the body count...
The Western Journal also reported on the matter:
President Donald Trump lashed out at CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond on Sunday after Diamond criticized the president during the daily White House coronavirus task force briefing.
Trump seemed to expect a confrontation when, as he called on Diamond, he breathed into the microphone, “Yeah, here we go.”
Diamond, noting the toll of the coronavirus on America, asked the president, “Can you explain, then, why you come out here and you were reading clips and showing clips of praise for you and for your administration? Is this really the time for self-congratulations?”
“I will tell you this,” Trump said. “What I’m doing is I’m standing up for the men and women that have done such an incredible job, not for me, for the men and women, admirals, and vice president, if I might, but all of the men and women — thousands, tens of thousands of them — they built hospitals in New York and New Jersey and all over this country in record time. They’d throw up a thousand beds in four days. I’m sticking up for those people. Those people have been incredible. I’m also sticking up for doctors and nurses and military doctors and nurses.”
The CNN reporter then argued that Trump had played video clips and read comments praising his administration.
“All I played today was Governor Cuomo saying very positive things about the job the federal government has done,” Trump said, referring to Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“Those people have been just absolutely excoriated by some of the fake news like you,” he said. “You’re CNN. You’re fake news. And let me just tell you, they were excoriated by people like you that don’t know any better because you don’t have the brains you were born with. You should be praising the people that have done a good job, not doing what you do, even that question.”
Of course, Diamond is just one example of a reporter who's questioning comes across as downright rude.
CBS's Weijia Jiang thought she had Trump put in his place, but when he questions her to see if she's done her research, she clearly shows she doesn't know the answer to his question.
Take a look:
Trump also has to deal with the infamouse Jim Acosta of CNN. Last month, Acosta questioned the President in a manner that many considered condescending.
You can see it below:
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