Trump lashes out after CNN’s Jim Acosta directly confronts him for “downplaying” the virus
He’s never wrong and will accept no criticism of his behavior or decision-making in true symptoms of the extreme narcissism that is the very foundation of his psyche, as Donald Trump once again tussled with reporters asking him perfectly legitimate questions during his now-daily coronavirus press conferences.
Today, veteran CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta — a man who is definitely not on Trump’s Christmas gift list because of his refusal to deliver the fawning softball questions that the reporters from OAN or Fox News like to pitch at the president like trained seals — was in the president’s crosshairs.
Acosta had the temerity to ask Trump what he would say to those who are upset with his weeks of downplaying the potential threat that the coronavirus posed to our country, directly quoting the president’s most egregious statements that actively ignored the danger that the entire nation would be facing at a time when early action against the pandemic could have helped flatten the curve and save lives.
Trump’s response was essentially that everything he said was true, that he was doing a fantastic job, and that Acosta and CNN were both nasty and snarky for asking such a question.
Take a look at the exchange in the excerpt below:
Trump explains that he accused nurses and New York officials of misappropriating masks because he was told that was happening by an unnamed "tremendous power in the business" pic.twitter.com/9ANcq2AfCz
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 30, 2020
Trump also had a field day once again attacking a frequent recent target, NPR’s Yamiche Alcindor, insulting her perfectly reasonable question as also “snarky” and spouting off wildly erroneous numbers about the population of Seoul, South Korea.
Here's Trump lecturing Yamiche that "38 million people" live in Seoul, South Korea. The actual population of Seoul is 9.8 million. pic.twitter.com/Lu1jY3sJ9J
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 30, 2020
With Trump still treating his press conferences as crosses between reelection campaign opportunities and WWE grudge matches rather than the serious informative sessions that could actually be helpful to the American people, his failure as a leader during this crisis becomes so obvious that one must marvel at the lowered standards of acceptable presidential behavior that his followers seem to be willing to accept even in the toughest times the country has faced in decades.
Those who still rate the president’s performance during the COVID-19 outbreak positively are getting exactly the president they deserve. Unfortunately, the rest of us — who remain the majority of the population just as in the 2016 election results — are forced to suffer and even die because of Trump’s slug-like response to a crisis he was told about well in advance and failed to act upon, despite his denials to the contrary.
And those who dare to defy his revisionist history, his self-congratulatory performance reviews, and alternative facts by asking reality-based questions will continue to face his ridicule and his wrath.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Aaron Rupar at Vox.
