TRUMP IS AN IDIOT
Trump rips reporter who asked him to calm scared Americans as 'terrible'

'You're a terrible reporter': Pressed on coronavirus, Trump berates NBC's Peter Alexander

President Donald Trump excoriated an NBC News correspondent as a “terrible reporter” on Friday after he asked the president to calm Americans who were scared because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump’s latest personal broadside on the media came at a news conference in which he appeared to minimize the fears of the American public by saying there was cause for optimism about drug therapies for coronavirus — treatments that one of his top government scientists had said were not at all proven.

At the Trump administration's coronavirus task force's daily briefing, Trump’s director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, made clear that any evidence about drug therapies being tested at the moment was strictly “anecdotal” and not the product of a “clinical trial.”

“You really can’t make any definitive statement about it,” Fauci said.

Trump nevertheless said he felt "good" about the treatments and that the federal government had already ordered "millions of units" of them.

NBC News’ Peter Alexander then asked Trump whether his “positive spin” regarding the potential treatments was giving Americans false hope.

“Is it possible that your impulse to put a positive spin on things may be giving Americans a false sense of hope?” Alexander asked.

“No I don’t think so,” Trump replied.

“It may work, it may not work, Trump said. “I feel good about. That’s all it is, it’s a feeling.”

Alexander responded by asking Trump to talk directly to Americans who are scared by the pandemic, which triggered the president to reply with an insult.

“What do you say to Americans who are scared, millions who are scared right now?” Alexander asked.

“I say that you’re a terrible reporter,” Trump said. “That’s what I say. I think that’s a very nasty question.”

“You’re doing sensationalism,” Trump said.

U.S. stocks, which had been up for the day before Trump began the news conference, tumbled steadily as the president spoke. In recent trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 100 points, or 0.6 percent.

Trump returned to the topic of media coverage later in the news conference, using another question from another reporter to levy an additional attack on Alexander.

"I’ve dealt with Peter for a long time," Trump said. "And I think Peter is not a good journalist."
TRUMP IS AN IDIOT
Trump Lashes Out at Reporter After Challenge on Unapproved Drug

President Trump calls NBC’s Peter Alexander a “terrible reporter.”

Virus Drug Touted by Trump, Musk Can Kill In Just Two Grams

Trump Touts Drug That FDA Says Isn’t Yet Approved for Virus 

By Josh Wingrove and Jordan Fabian March 20, 2020

President Donald Trump again encouraged Americans to try a malaria drug to fight coronavirus that the FDA hasn’t approved for the disease, and assailed a reporter who suggested that pushing it might spark a false sense of hope.
“I think people will be surprised,” Trump said of the drug, chloroquine, at a White House news conference on Friday. “It will be a game changer.”

NBC correspondent Peter Alexander pointed out that Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, has said there is no “magic drug” for the virus and asked whether Trump was providing a “false sense of hope.”

Trump replied: “Such a lovely question. Maybe and maybe not. It may work and it may not work,” he said. “I feel good about it.”

When Alexander then asked what Trump had to say to Americans who are “scared” by the outbreak, Trump grew angry, calling Alexander a “terrible reporter” and saying his question sent “very bad signal.”

“You ought to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism,” he said, adding that “I’ve been right a lot.”

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” he added.

When another reporter followed up, asking again what Trump had to say to Americans worried about the virus, Trump said: “There is a very low incidence of death. You understand that,” adding that Americans who contract the disease are very likely to survive.

TRUMP IS AN IDIOT
Sean Spicer debuts as White House reporter during heated Trump coronavirus briefing

© Alex Wong/Getty Images Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer sits among members of the press as he waits for the beginning of a news briefing on the latest development of the coronavirus outbreak on Friday.

President Donald Trump heaped scorn on several members of the White House press corps at a coronavirus briefing Friday, but made a point of responding to questions from a new reporter in the briefing room: His former press secretary.

“Mr. President, two questions if you would indulge me,”

Sean Spicer said when Trump pointed a finger to call on his former aid
Spicer, of course, is the former White House and Republican National Committee spokesman who vigorously defended Trump’s inauguration crowd size claims and regularly tangled with reporters during combative White House briefings before his ouster in a 2017 shakeup. He also took a spin on “Dancing With The Stars.”

Spicer now has his own political talk show for the conservative Newsmax TV outlet. By the time Trump entered the White House Briefing Room to address reporters Friday, Spicer was set to press his old boss for presidential reaction to small business anxieties and reports that senators unloaded stocks before a pandemic-sparked market downturn.

The surreal scene played out moments after the president castigated NBC’s Peter Alexander for suggesting that Trump may be giving Americans “a false sense of hope” about coronavirus treatment, asking what he would say to Americans who are scared or sickened by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

“I say that you are a terrible reporter. That's what I say,” Trump told Alexander. “I think that's a very nasty question, and I think it's a very bad signal that you're putting out to the American people. The American people are looking for answers, and they are looking for hope. And you are doing sensationalism.”

Trump’s attacks on the news media are a familiar tactic at his campaign rallies and press conferences. After a brief détente earlier this week, the president lashed out at the media again during Thursday’s briefing. Friday's spat with Alexander, juxtaposed with Spicer’s presence on the other side of the podium, further heightened the strains with the press corps.

Ultimately, Trump used Spicer's questions to praise his administration's response to small businesses hammered by the outbreak and defend senators who reportedly sold stock before markets tanked in response to the pandemic, though he made sure to call out only one of them — a California Democrat — by name.

"I saw some names. I know all of them. I know everyone mentioned," Trump replied to Spicer. "Dianne Feinstein, I guess. And a couple of others. I don't know too much about what it's about, but I find them to all be very honorable people. That’s all I know. And they said they did nothing wrong. I find them — the whole group, very honorable people."
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/watchdog-group-files-complaints-against.html

Friday's exchanges didn't sit well with some other reporters."What the president did to Peter Alexander is reprehensible," CNN anchor John King declared after Friday's press conference.

"It was striking that this came, this, forgive me, bulls*** attack on fake news came just moments after the secretary of State said the American people have to be careful about where they get their information and go to sources they can trust."