On Sunday, the president of people who didn’t wash their hands before the coronavirus and probably still don’t held a rally disguised as a press conference in which he rated questions on a scale of nice and ugly, berated a reporter for quoting him and continued to lie to the American public about what he did and didn’t do during a global pandemic.
And because he’s a fucking egomaniac, he’s been bragging about his press briefing viewership numbers being higher than the NFL because he doesn’t realize that America was hoping for answers during this troubling time and not because they love him.
Which brings me to this: It’s time for America to stop feeding the beast and start social distancing ourselves from Trump’s masturbatory press briefings before PBS NewsHour reporter Yamiche Alcindor loses her professionalism and begins to Vaseline her face. Seriously, the woman deserves hazard pay for the level of restraint she’s shown since the coronavirus hit, and by ‘coronavirus,’ I mean Trump’s press briefings.
On Sunday, Alcindor tried to ask the president about a claim he made on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Where Assholes Go to Lie.
“Mr. President, I have two questions,” she said. “The first is you’ve said repeatedly that you think that some of the equipment that governors are requesting they don’t actually need. You said New York might not need 30,000 …,” the Washington Post reports.
Trump didn’t let her finish.
“I didn’t say that,” he said.
“You said it on Sean Hannity’s Fox News,” Alcindor responded.
Here is the clip of him saying it on Fox News:
“Come on, come on. Why don’t you people—why don’t you act in a little more positive? It’s always ‘get ya, get ya, get ya.’ And you know what? That’s why nobody trusts the media anymore.”
“You people!” Yep, he said that shit, although I’m sure he meant journalist, but he’s speaking to a black woman and needs to be more selective with his words. You would’ve thought Omarosa would have taught him better.
“Look, let me tell you something. Be nice. Don’t be threatening. Be nice,” Trump said.
This isn’t the first time that he’s had a run-in with Alcindor.
From the Post:
Trump’s reaction to Alcindor’s question recalled past incidents in which the president has cast black female reporters as “stupid,” “a loser” and “racist.”
On March 13, when Alcindor asked whether the suspension of the White House pandemic office slowed the country’s response to the coronavirus, Trump called it a “nasty question.”
He got personal again Sunday with Alcindor, making what he seemed to consider disparaging comments about her career.
“Excuse me,” said the president at one point, “you didn’t hear me, that’s why you used to work for The Times and now you work for somebody else,” a reference to the New York Times and PBS NewsHour.
The president didn’t call on Alcindor to ask a second question, even though she had told him she had a follow-up.
And then in a moment of what can only be considered boss AF—mostly because it was a show of support by journalists who have to endure this shit and because I’m sure it pissed the president off—CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond gave the microphone back to Alcindor “so she could ask Trump which public health experts supported his claims that more people would die from the economic impact of social distancing than from coronavirus infections,” the Post reports.
Trump danced around her question, as he’s known to do.
So in that same spirit of sharing the mic, I suggest that it’s time to pull the plug on Trump’s press conferences. It’s time for journalists to stop showing up and providing a moment for him to drag them across the coals for asking honest questions, and it’s time for news organizations to stop broadcasting him.
Plus, these briefings aren’t informative or even important; it’s just another opportunity for Trump to reach his minions with his lies and unpresidential behavior. They live for that shit.
Much like the coronavirus, Trump dies without an audience. We need to practice social distancing from the president’s lies. We need to wash our hands of his bullshit. It’s already hard enough being trapped inside the house all day but having to listen to this man’s phony attempts to reframe the narrative of his fumbling response efforts is maddening.