During a COVID-19 press conference on March 20, 2020, NBC reporter Peter Alexander asked, “What do you say to Americans who are scared though? I guess, nearly 200 dead, 14,000 who are sick, millions, as you witnessed, who are scared right now. What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?”
Trump replied, “I say that you’re a terrible reporter. That’s what I say. I think that’s a very nasty question.” He went on to say that the reporter should be ashamed.
The exchange came after Trump promoted an unproven drug treatment, which Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, corrected.
When asked about what he expects of state governors after Trump previously said they should treat him well if they want assistance, Trump replied, “I want them to be appreciative.” He went on to say how the Washington governor Jay Inslee was a failed candidate that continually “chirps” to the administration. He also continued to reference Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as “the woman in Michigan.”
Referencing Pence, head of the COVID-19 task force, Trump continued, “I say Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington, you’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan. It doesn’t make any difference what happens. You know what I say? If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call.”
“The federal government’s done a hell of a job,” he’d remarked during the conference.
During a March 22, 2020 COVID-19 press conference Trump was told that four US Senators were in isolation, including Utah US Senator Mitt Romney. He replied, “Romney’s in isolation? Gee, that’s too bad.”
Romney was the sole Republican Senator to vote to impeach Trump earlier in the year.
During a Fox News virtual town hall meeting, Trump said, “I think we’re doing very well, but you know, it’s a two way street. They have to treat us well also. They can’t say, oh gee we should get this, we should get that. We’re doing a great job.”
During a Fox News virtual Town Hall in which he claimed that America would suffer more deaths from economic closures than COVID19, Trump also attacked Cuomo for failing to purchase 15,000 ventilators. The remarks came amid the governor’s remarks that the state would need 30,000 more, which Trump said he didn’t believe.
Trump explained, “We’re building them hospitals, we’re building them medical centers, and he was complaining about – we’re doing probably more, definitely more for him than anybody else, and, uh, he was talking about the ventilators, but he should’ve ordered the ventilators. And he had a choice, he had a chance because right here, I just got this out that he refused to order 15,000 ventilators. I’ll show this to Bill, take a look at that, Bill, what does that say?” The host he was passing it to, Bill Hemmer, declined to take the paper, remarking, “Is this social distancing, here?”
Trump was referencing far-right conspiracy blog Gateway Pundit. However, there was never any option or suggestion to purchase 15,000 ventilators. The New York Department of Health reported in 2015 that the state would have a shortage of about 15,000 ventilators if a pandemic like the 1918 Spanish flu arose, and also noted that this would be largely due to supply shortages across the country.
Cuomo explained, There is no state in the United States that bought ventilators for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The federal government did not buy ventilators for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Nobody in the world bought ventilators in preparation for a 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.”
During a virtual town hall on Fox News, Trump said about business closures without evidence that “more people are going to die if we allow this to continue.”
He went on to say, “We have to open this country up. We can socially distance ourselves and go to work, and you’ll have to work a little bit harder and you can clean your hands five times more than you’re used to. You don’t have to shake hands anymore with people. We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu – we never turn the country off. We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We don’t call up automobile companies and say ‘stop making cars.”
Trump suggests going back to work during a pandemic is really no big deal because lots of people die from the flu and car accidents pic.twitter.com/pRTjmLH7xo
He seemed to indicate that the only reason he allowed such measures in the first place was because of criticism if he hadn’t. “If I would have not done it, we would’ve been unbelievably criticized for not doing it. Somehow the word got out that this is the thing we’re supposed to be doing.”
Trump planned to reopen the economy nationwide by Easter. At the time, the United States had over 65,000 confirmed cases.
The remark was amid a press conference on the COVID19 pandemic. When asking reporters if there were any questions for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump said, “I’d like him to go back to the State Department, or as they call it, the Deep State department – if you don’t mind – I’d lie to have him go back and do his job.”
The deep state is a conspiracy theory Trump has commonly employed, which references a secret cabal within the government.
It prompted an incredulous reaction from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Trump called into Sean Hannity’s Fox News show to counter New York’s request for more ventilators amid the COVID19 outbreak. New York governor Andrew Cuomo had previously called for the equipment in preparation for an expected surge in cases, and that the only way they could procure more was from the federal government. At the time of Trump’s remarks, the state of New York had over 37,000 confirmed cases and 300 deaths.
