April 14, 2020
"I've covered six presidents, but I've never covered any White House briefing quite like the one tonight," USA Today's Susan Page tweeted Monday night, after President Trump's unusual coronavirus press conference. The event, which lasted a record two and a half hours, included infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci carefully walking back comments about how an earlier response would have saved many lives, a White House-produced video mixing praise for Trump's response with criticism of the media, and Trump incorrectly claiming "total" authority over when states lift their various stay-at-home orders.
Reason senior editor Robby Soave also found Trump's press conference extraordinary.
I am far from a knee-jerk critic of Trump, but this press briefing has to be one of the most embarrassing moments of his presidency. Just an utterly unhinged, childish temper tantrum.
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) April 13, 2020
On CNN, which broadcast much of Trump's speech even while contemporaneously describing it as an angry "propaganda session," White House correspondent Jim Acosta seemed concerned about Trump's wellbeing. "I have to tell you, that is the biggest meltdown I have ever seen from a president of the United States in my career," he said. "I don't think a reasonable person could watch what we just saw over the last hour and conclude that the president is in control. He sounds like he is out of control. And he was ranting and raving for the better part of the last hour during that news conference."
Acosta said by "claiming that he has authorities that he doesn't have," Trump is trying to assert control after East Coast and West Coast governors agreed they would decide when their states would open in a coordinated fashion, with advice from Fauci and other federal experts. "To some extent, top public health officials and governors are working around the president for precisely the reason that we just saw unfold in front of our very eyes over the last hour," he said, "and that is: The president doesn't sound like he's in control on multiple levels."
Watch below.
Peter Weber
CNN had a field day with its chyrons during Trump's 'meltdown' at his coronavirus briefing
Sonam Sheth,Business Insider•April 13, 2020
President Donald Trump at the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House.
(Reuters)
CNN had a remarkable string of chyrons — the headline-esque text used to supplement news broadcasts — after President Donald Trump spent most of Monday's coronavirus briefing lashing out at his perceived foes — airing a video that was described as propaganda and claiming he had "total" authority as president.
"Trump melts down in angry response to reports he ignored virus warnings," one chyron said.
Another said: "Angry Trump uses propaganda video, produced by government employees at taxpayers' expense."
"Trump uses task force briefing to try and rewrite history on coronavirus response," another said.
President Donald Trump spent most of Monday's coronavirus briefing lashing out as his perceived enemies — showing a video that many described as political propaganda and claiming he had "total" authority as president.
"That is the biggest meltdown of a president of the United States that I've ever seen in my career," CNN's Jim Acosta said while Trump's briefing was still going. "I don't think a reasonable person could watch what we just saw over the last hour and conclude that the president is in control."
The network also had a field day with its chyrons — the headline-esque text used to supplement news broadcasts — while Trump was airing out his grievances Monday.
A sampling of some of the chyrons:
"Trump melts down in angry response to reports he ignored virus warnings"
"Angry Trump uses propaganda video, produced by government employees at taxpayers' expense"
"Trump uses task force briefing to try and rewrite history on coronavirus response"
—Calvin K Holsclaw (@calvinkholsclaw) April 13, 2020
—Tom Weber (@tweber) April 13, 2020
Trump has drawn sharp criticism for his administration's inaction in the early days of the US coronavirus outbreak. The World Health Organization declared the novel virus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, a pandemic last month.
It originated in China, but the US is now the global epicenter of the outbreak. To date, 2,019,320 infections around the world have been reported, with 119,483 deaths. In the US, there are 682,619 confirmed cases and 23,529 deaths.
The Trump administration has since drawn renewed scrutiny for slashing public-health programs, failing to conduct early rigorous testing to detect and contain the disease's spread, and ignoring multiple warnings from intelligence officials and government agencies of an impending pandemic.
Trump has also failed to maintain a consistent message as the US grapples with the outbreak.
He initially downplayed the risk of the coronavirus, insisting that it was no more dangerous than the flu and that the US was well-prepared to handle it.
As the virus gained a stronger foothold in the country in mid-March, Trump acknowledged the severity of the crisis and claimed he "felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic."
He pivoted to focus on the economy late last month and said the US would "be open for business" again "very soon," despite public-health officials saying that preemptively lifting stay-at-home orders would exacerbate the outbreak. But Trump doubled down, saying, "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself."
On Monday, Trump raised eyebrows when he baselessly claimed he had the authority to compel governors to reopen their states' economies as the coronavirus outbreak becomes more manageable.
"When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total," Trump said. "And that's the way it's got to be."
Earlier Monday, the governors of California, Washington, and Oregon said they were working together on a West Coast plan to safely reopen those states, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York unveiled a multistate coalition to coordinate on ways to reopen the region's economy.
Trump and many of his top administration officials have been adamant about rolling back social-distancing measures to fire up the economy as the US faces mounting unemployment and economic distress.
Cuomo and the governors of the western states made their announcement after Trump falsely suggested on Twitter that reopening the country "is the decision of the president." In fact, the decision is up to states.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins pressed Trump during Monday's briefing on his baseless claim that his "authority is total" as president, saying: "That is not true. Who told you that?"
"Yeah, so you know what we're going to do?" Trump replied. "We are going to write up papers on this. It's not going to be necessary because the governors need us one way or the other. Because ultimately it comes with the federal government."
The 10th Amendment delegates "police powers" to the states to regulate behavior during public-health crises.
Still, Trump pressed on, saying, "The federal government has absolute power. As to whether I'll use that power, we'll see."
Read the original article on Business Insider
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