Trump Wednesday presser: public apologies, political prevarication, and more mixed messages
Donald Trump’s daily press briefing started with a scene reminiscent of the reeducation camps of the Chinese cultural revolution with CDC Director Robert Redfield called before the public almost immediately by the “great leader” to defend his comments in a Washington Post interview — where he speculated that the COVID-19 pandemic could “be even more difficult” next winter than it is now — and explain how they were in no way in contradiction with the attitudes expressed by the president in his little red book of optimistic pandemic predictions.
The moment set the tone for the parade of self-praise, arrogance, narcissism, and dismissiveness that the president dispenses daily to the assembled press to demonstrate that anyone questioning his authority, the appropriateness or timeliness of his actions, or breaking ranks with the desires of the “Great Trumpolini” will be swiftly put in their place.
As they do each day, Aaron Rupar of Vox and Daniel Dale of CNN live-tweeted the proceedings, allowing us to present a glimpse of the briefing without forcing the readers here to sit through the frustrating experience of watching the propaganda puppet show in real-time.
Without further ado, here are today’s highlights.
Here's CDC Director Redfield trying to make a painstaking distinction between "worse" and "complicated" in an effort to walk back comments he made on the record indicating that a second wave of coronavirus this fall could be really bad pic.twitter.com/q9eClOqxkz
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2020
Director Redfield looked profoundly uncomfortable as he was forced to walk the tightrope between the clear warning that he gave in his interview that a return to normal life was not going come quickly or easily and the president’s fantasies of a return to the time when the economy still gave him a chance at being reelected.
Redfield: When I commented that there was a possibility of a second wave being more difficult or complicated, when we'd have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time, but I didn't say this was going to be "worse," just more difficult and complicated.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Redfield: The issue I'm talking about, it being more "difficult" in the second wave, is that we'll have two viruses circulating at the same time, whereas this time the flu season has ended so we can use all our flu surveillance system. Next fall and winter, it'll be both.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Redfield: "I'm accurately quoted in the Washington Post," but there's an issue with the (paraphrasing) headline that said more devastating rather than more difficult.
(Let's move on and never think about this again.)
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Like yesterday, Trump painted a picture of virus testing capabilities that only he — and a coronavirus task force too politically savvy to contradict him — actually believe are available to the general public in the quantities that they need.
Trump accuses Pelosi of "having a rally in Chinatown" in San Francisco in February, which is another lie. pic.twitter.com/v2jtKUoyE8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2020
Trump could maybe bash Pelosi for not taking the threat seriously enough on that day, Feb. 24…though he himself said on that same day that "the Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA” and kept downplaying it for weeks after…but he keeps adding fake details.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
With coronavirus preventing Trump from holding rallies, these briefings allow him to keep up his daily quota of political lies and misinformation without having to double his social media output in order to maintain his uncontested status as the most mendacious president in U.S. history.
Trump: If this virus comes back, it won't come back anywhere "near" the current level…but there could be a "mess" if there are "embers of corona coupled with the flu," which is "not gonna be pleasant"…but also not "what we've gone through," and we're more prepared now.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Being the king of lies is not enough for Trump, who now wants the honorific “king of ventilators” added to his official credentials.
"King of ventilators."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Trump: One time all we talked about was ventilators, ventilators, and it was because nobody thought I would solve that problem, but "I solved it," and now nobody talks about this. (We talked about ventilators because of real concerns about ventilators.)
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
The presidential paranoia level has apparently not diminished since yesterday’s briefing when it comes to his persecution by the press complex.
Trump on the US success in providing a sufficient number of ventilators: "The fake news was very unhappy that it was done."
Just complete nonsense.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Trump’s mixed messages of an urged reopening of America’s businesses and the concomitant danger of a resurgence in the number of COVID-19 infections made for a macabre combination.
Trump on how we have to guard against a rebound: "We don't want rebounds after all this DEATH. DEATH." Trump says the virus should've never left the "little area where it started" and everyone knows it.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
One could make the same statement about the president himself in reference to the reality TV career that he should have never left.
Trump tried to have it both ways by publicly disagreeing with Georgia Governor Brian Kamp’s decision to reopen high-risk personal care businesses in his state against all health experts’ recommendations while refusing to exercise his claimed authority to prevent the governor from doing so.
Trump: I told Gov. Kemp that I disagree with his move — it's "too soon" to open tattoo parlors, spas, barbershops in phase one, though "I love the people" who go to those businesses. "Safety" needs to take priority; those businesses can wait.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
TRUMP: "On July 4, we will be doing what we had at the Mall. As you know, we're gonna be doing it. Last year was a tremendous success and I would imagine we'll do it, hopefully I can use the term 'forever.' That was a great success, as you remember." pic.twitter.com/VecXPKIVkW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2020
Trump’s incoherent messaging was never more apparent than in his call for a grand, crowded July 4th celebration in the nation’s capital and his attempts at explaining how that could take place while maintaining social distancing.
He quickly moved back to bragging about what a great job his administration was doing with rolling out testing capabilities for the COVID-19 virus.
Trump says they're making efforts to expand testing in underserved areas. He touts the provisions of the new bill. He also says telehealth has become a big deal.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Trump: "Some people" are very "big" on testing, but also, "some people are much less big than I am, and they're professionals." (?) (Experts generally emphasize that testing is critical.)
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Trump is emphasizing minority communities in his prepared remarks. He's now talking about how much African-Americans and Hispanics were prospering before all this happened, again doing his usual rally boasts in the past tense.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Trump says safety might happen at a level like safety has never happened before.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Trump's past tense economic boasts don't have the same juice as they did when they were present tense boasts pic.twitter.com/9Z4YiW7eZN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2020
When the time for questions from the press came, Trump was immediately asked about the report today in The New York Times about the alleged politically-motivated removal of Dr. Rick Bright from his position as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and as the deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response.
Asked about Rick Bright's claim he was pushed out in part because he fought back over the admin's hydroxychloroquine push, Trump says, "I've never heard of him." On the claim he was pushed out, Trump says, "Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't"; have to hear the other side.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Here's Trump comparing the crowd he got for his speech last July 4th to crowds MLK used to get for his speeches pic.twitter.com/rwaO0YPj4G
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2020
Trump’s nostalgia for the roar of the crowds knows no bounds as he gleefully promised wealthy sports team owners that their often publicly-financed stadiums would soon be full again, just like the good old days.
Trump: Sports are going to be the way they used to be; I told "one of the owners" who asked me if they should take out seats that no, they shouldn't; this virus will be gone, and if it comes back, "we'll put it out very fast."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
As reporters continued to press the president on testing, Trump fell back on his media persecution excuse rather than addressing the legitimate discrepancies between his rosy and boastful portrait of what he’s accomplished and the reality in the emergency rooms and hospitals across the country.
Asked if more testing is needed, Trump keeps boasting about how much is currently being done and then says it's a "media trap": "It'll never be enough, no matter what."
Experts and governors on all sides say testing is critical. This is not an anti-Trump conspiracy.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Asked to say more about his disagreement with Gov. Kemp about his move to reopen businesses, Trump changes the topic to talking about how Kemp's victory represented a win in his proxy war against the Obamas pic.twitter.com/w1DEJzkSVk
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2020
Trump: "I know the people from spas and beauty parlors, tattoo parlors. Bikers for Trump. A lot of tattoos."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Trump made sure to point out how he is helping everyone in the categories of voters already predisposed to vote for him, including America’s farmers and its seniors.
Trump: Nobody ever took care of farmers like I take care of farmers.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Trump: We're taking excellent care of our seniors, other than me. "Nobody wants to take care of me."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
TRUMP: "Ultimately we're doing more testing, I think, than probably any of the governors even want." (There is not a single governor to my knowledge who has expressed satisfaction with the current level of coronavirus testing.) pic.twitter.com/FUcKf5wWso
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2020
The Q & A sections of the press conference can often get testy, and today was no different. Anytime Trump was asked a question that he didn’t want to answer — or couldn’t — he used it as an opportunity to insult or demean the person asking the question, no matter how legitimate the inquiry may have been.
"Have you studied him? Have you reported on him?" — Trump takes umbrage after @weijia describes Dr. Bright, the HHS official who says he was ousted after he resisted Trump's hydroxychloroquine push, as "gifted" pic.twitter.com/tlSCQuBTQj
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2020
Trump concluded his briefing by again misstating the date of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, likely because no one on his staff has the nerve to correct him.
Trump closes the briefing by restating his lie that the US has done more coronavirus than "all those nations put together." pic.twitter.com/brFmkxf5S3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2020
Ending on another boastful, but unfactual, note. the president walked out the door to the shouted questions from reporters foolishly seeking truthful information when by now they should all know that all that Trump will deliver will be the singular message he wishes to convey — he’s doing a great job, better than anyone has ever done before, a job that no one else could possibly do.
This is not a president, this is a pitiful carnival barker, swimming fully-clothed in the deep end of the pool without a clue on how to swim and expecting Olympic gold.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Aaron Rupar at Vox and by Daniel Dale at CNN.
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