NBC’s Peter Alexander asked Donald Trump about misleading Americans and then gave him a softball to reassure Americans on coronavirus pandemic. The president lost it calling the reporter terrible.
Don’t question his pandemic response
CNN reported it as follows.
New York (CNN Business) In an extraordinary exchange on Friday, President Donald Trump viciously attacked an NBC News reporter who asked what his message would be to Americans who are frightened by the coronavirus pandemic that is spreading across the country.
The exchange, which occurred at the White House’s daily coronavirus task force briefing, began when NBC News reporter Peter Alexander asked Trump whether he was giving Americans “false hope” by touting unproven coronavirus drugs.
Toward the end of the exchange, Alexander cited the latest pandemic statistics showing thousands of Americans are now infected and millions are scared. Alexander asked, “What do you say to Americans who are scared?” Trump, shaking his head, ripped into Alexander in response. “I say that you are a terrible reporter,” Trump replied. “That’s what I say.” The President proceeded to launch into an extended rant against Alexander, saying he asked a “nasty question” and assailing NBC and its parent company, Comcast.
“You’re doing sensationalism,” Trump charged. “And the same with NBC and Comcast. I don’t call it Comcast. I call it ‘Con-Cast.'”“Let me just tell you something,” Trump added. “That’s really bad reporting. And you ought to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism.” Moments later, Kaitlan Collins, a White House correspondent for CNN, asked Trump if it was appropriate to embark on tirades against members of the news media during a public health crisis. “You see yourself as a wartime President right now, leading the country through a pandemic that we are experiencing,”
Collins noted. “Do you think going off on Peter, going off on a network is appropriate when the country is going through something like this?” Trump defended his verbal assault on Alexander, saying he’s “not a good journalist” and launching into another rant against him.
The president should be ashamed of himself. Because he was able to answer the question truthfully, Trump deferred to deflection. In other words he made the subject a spat between him and a reporter real news be damned.