“Don’t be a cutie pie!” Trump gives bizarre, condescending answer to question about ventilators
President Trump held yet another of his largely performative and misinformation-filled pressers this afternoon at the White House, and it didn’t take long for it to degenerate into yet another dramatic horror show.
The conflict between Trump’s desire to appear presidential and his palpable disgust for the mainstream media was put on full display when the President lost his patience and told ABC’s Jon Karl to “not be a cutie pie” in response to a question about ventilators.
.@jonkarl presses Pres. Trump on whether everyone who needs a ventilator will get one. “Look, don’t be a cutie pie,” Trump responds, claiming “we’re in great shape.” https://t.co/uxvSisKJ4b pic.twitter.com/6gkjO9JtQG
— ABC News (@ABC) March 27, 2020
The rest of the conference wasn’t much better; highlights include Trump being asked to address America’s bored schoolchildren (“You are a citizen, and you have a duty to sit back and relax”) and Trump wondering about what kind of disease this virus really is (“You can call it a flu? I don’t think anyone even knows what it is”).
Here's Trump saying of the coronavirus that "you can call it a flu … I'm not sure that anybody even knows what it is." (It is not the flu.) pic.twitter.com/47Fx8ZpaF1
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 27, 2020
Very little of substance was discussed during this afternoon’s press conference, which caused many commentators to wonder why the news networks should air them at all.
As we have had to learn the hard way, just because he’s the president doesn’t mean we need to hear what he has to say.
Hey @MSNBC @CNN, why in the world are you televising this craziness from the White House???
A huge chunk of the country is on a #CoronaLockdown and the President is saying crazy things.
Where is the public interest in televising this?
I'm not learning anything at all.
— Grant Stern (@grantstern) March 27, 2020
This is a staff report from former Occupy Democrats Editor in Chief Colin Taylor or contributor Rob Haffney.