On Tuesday, ABC’s White House correspondent Jon Karl attempted to scold President Trump for having “lashed out” at Democrats who were politicizing coronavirus. Trump shut down the line of questioning by pointing out he has to “respond” since liberal politicians “have the media on their side.”
“In your address to the nation, you said we have to put politics aside, stop the partisanship and unify together. But this morning you criticized the Democratic governor of Michigan, yesterday it was the Democratic governor of New York,” Karl complained to the President during Tuesday’s Coronavirus Task Force press conference.
The reporter lectured: “You’ve attacked Obama, you’ve attacked Biden. In fact, every day except one, since that address, you’ve lashed out at a Democratic leader. Are you going set the example on this?”
Missing from Karl’s question was any acknowledgment of how Democrats have worked to politicize the pandemic response.
Trump pushed back hard:
I only do that when I have to respond. I watch her on television, she said something that was false, and therefore, I did do that. And I will continue to do that if they’re not going play fair. Because you know, they have the media on their side. I don’t. I just have me. And if they’re not going to play fair, I’m gonna do that.
After Karl attempted to interrupt, the President pointed to a recent example of Democrats trying to use the crisis to their political advantage – with the help of the liberal media of course:
There’s gonna be nobody better than Donald Trump in terms of bipartisanship. But if they’re going to say things that are false, like the story that was written yesterday. Lot of people, I don’t know, somebody, I think I know who, but they taped a conference call that I had with the governors. It was a good call, it was fine. I assume somebody’s going to tape it. They handed it to various people, one of whom was The New York Times and the New York Times chose to write totally inaccurately about it. It was a disgraceful thing, it was bad journalism. But you know, they do a lot of bad journalism, but we respond to that.
“When they attack me or the people – these incredible people behind me, I’m not going to let them get away with it. I can’t do that,” Trump concluded.
Here is a transcript of the March 17 exchange:
(...)
12:56 PM ET
JON KARL: Mr. President, I want to bring up a point you referred to just a short while ago about politics. In your address to the nation, you said we have to put politics aside, stop the partisanship and unify together. But this morning you criticized the Democratic governor of Michigan, yesterday it was the Democratic governor of New York. You’ve attacked Obama, you’ve attacked Biden. In fact, every day except one, since that address, you’ve lashed out at a Democratic leader. Are you going set the example on this?
TRUMP: I only do that when I have to respond. I watch her on television, she said something that was false, and therefore, I did do that. And I will continue to do that if they’re not going play fair. Because you know, they have the media on their side. I don’t. I just have me. And if they’re not going to play fair, I’m gonna do that. If they are going to play fair, there’s going to be nobody...
KARL: Well, hold on, excuse me, sir –
TRUMP: There’s gonna be nobody better than Donald Trump in terms of bipartisanship. But if they’re going to say things that are false, like the story that was written yesterday. Lot of people, I don’t know, somebody, I think I know who, but they taped a conference call that I had with the governors. It was a good call, it was fine. I assume somebody’s going to tape it. They handed it to various people, one of whom was The New York Times and the New York Times chose to write totally inaccurately about it. It was a disgraceful thing, it was bad journalism. But you know, they do a lot of bad journalism, but we respond to that. And actually, people get it, people get it. No, I want it to be bipartisan, and nobody is going to be better than me. But when they attack me or the people – these incredible people behind me, I’m not going to let them get away with it. I can’t do that.
(...)
