After some uncertainty about the future of White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings, Monday’s edition went off without a hitch in the Rose Garden and the questions were relatively fair and uncontroversial.
That was until New York magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi was granted the final question and, despite the adorations from fellow liberal journalists afterward, she stood on the graves of Americans lost in the Vietnam War when she asked President Trump whether he “deserve[s]” a second term since more Americans have died from coronavirus than the war.
Here was Nuzzi’s question: “If an American president loses more Americans over the course of six weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam war, does he deserve to be re-elected?”
That’s not a question but rather shameless, bad faith baiting that would make even the Chinese government mouthpieces blush.
Reacting to Nuzzi’s nonsense, our friend Mark Levin tweeted that she was the “inaugural winner of today’s Walter Duranty propagandist award.” Predictably, Nuzzi was already beloved among media elites and progressive charlatans, but her snarky piece of hate and propaganda made her even more endearing.
Nuzzi insisted afterward that it wasn’t a “gotcha” question, but when it’s a question that correspondents from CGTN or RT would ask, it’s not a good look.
Oftentimes, Trump would unload on the reporter and trash them for their truly unhelpful and partisan questioning. This time, however, Trump was surprisingly calm.
Trump started by insisting that while “we've lost a lot of people,” the projections aren’t anywhere close to the worst-case scenarios. Most importantly, he added that the current total (over 55,000 as of the briefing) was “far too many” and “[o]ne person is far too many for this.”
Again refusing to lose his temper, the President touted his travel restriction from China (with the caveat emphasizing that Americans should have been allowed to return), and the task force writ large under Vice President Mike Pence’s leadership.
Trump then concluded:
I think that everybody working on the ventilators, you see what we've done there, have done unbelievable. The press doesn't talk about ventilators anymore. They just don't want to talk about them, and that's okay, but the reason they don't want to talk --- that was a subject that nobody could get off of. They don't want to talk about ‘em. We’re in the same position on testing. We are lapping the world on testing and the world is coming to us, as I said, they’re coming to us saying what are you doing? How do you do it? We’re helping them. So, no, I think we've done a great job and one person --- I will say this. One person is too many.
To see the relevant transcript from April 27’s briefing, click “expand.”
White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing
April 27, 2020
6:32 p.m. EasternOLIVIA NUZZI: If an American president loses more Americans over the course of six weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam war, does he deserve to be re-elected?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, we've lost a lot of people, but if you look at what original projections were 2.2 million, we are probably heading to 60,000-70,000. It’s far too many. One person is far too many for this and I think we've made a lot of really good decisions. The big decision was closing the border or doing the ban, people coming in from China, obviously other than American citizens, which had to come in. Can’t say you can’t come in --- you can’t come back to your country. I think we've made a lot of good decisions. I think that Mike Pence and the task force have done a fantastic job. I think that everybody working on the ventilators, you see what we've done there, have done unbelievable. The press doesn't talk about ventilators anymore. They just don't want to talk about them, and that's okay, but the reason they don't want to talk --- that was a subject that nobody could get off of. They don't want to talk about ‘em. We’re in the same position on testing. We are lapping the world on testing and the world is coming to us, as I said, they’re coming to us saying what are you doing? How do you do it? We’re helping them. So, no, I think we've done a great job and one person --- I will say this. One person is too many.
