During the White House’s daily coronavirus task force briefing on Friday, President Trump ripped into a reporter who asked if he had a message for “scared” Americans during this time, NBC News reported.
Peter Alexander, the NBC White House correspondent, appeared taken aback during the exchange which quickly became heated as the president accused him of being a “terrible reporter.”
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During the briefing, the president appeared to minimize the fear of the American people by expressing optimism for new coronavirus drug therapies.
Hydroxychloroquine is one of those very drugs, and when asked about the treatment during the briefing, Trump’s director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said it isn’t being considered as an effective prophylactic measure against coronavirus.
“The answer is no,” he confirmed.
Alexander asked whether Trump was giving Americans “false hope” by touting unproven coronavirus drugs.
“It may work, it may not work,” Trump replied, insisting he doesn’t feel he’s offered the American people false hope. “I feel good about. That’s all it is, it’s a feeling.”
Alexander then asked Trump to respond directly to Americans who fear the disease and its spread through the country.
“What do you say to Americans who are scared though?” the reporter implored. “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?”
“I say that you’re a terrible reporter,” Trump replied. “That’s what I say. I think that’s a very nasty question.”
The POTUS proceeded to launch into a surprising and vicious rant against not only Alexander, but NBC and its parent company, Comcast.
“You’re doing sensationalism,” Trump fumed. “And the same with NBC and Comcast. I don’t call it Comcast. I call it ‘Con-Cast.'”
“Let me just tell you something,” he added. “That’s really bad reporting. And you ought to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism.”
Kaitlan Collins, a White House correspondent for CNN, later came to Alexander’s defense as she confronted the president.
“You see yourself as a wartime President right now, leading the country through a pandemic that we are experiencing,” she began. “Do you think going off on Peter, going off on a network is appropriate when the country is going through something like this?”
Trump, however, was unmoved, and said he stands by his actions.
“I’ve dealt with Peter for a long time,” Trump said. “And I think Peter is not a good journalist.”
He added, “This is the time to come together. But coming together is much harder when we have dishonest journalists.”
Alexander later tweeted about the incident, and added Vice President Pence eventually addressed his initial question.
As Alexander reported, Pence responded that his message to Americans is, “do not be afraid, be vigilant” and added that the risk of serious illness for most American citizens is low.
Watch the full exchange below.
After news spread of Trump’s outburst, Alexander has received both support and criticism from people online.
“You’re such a liar, Peter,” this user wrote. “A simple question that you’re not completely presenting. You forget, we saw you asking said question[s] and you were a jerk. You’re part of why America doesn’t trust the media.”
“Do better,” they added.
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Others believe Trump was in the wrong and praised Alexander for his questioning.
As this user wrote, “You threw him the perfect question for any president. A chance to be a leader and calm the country. He saw it as you calling him out for being the failure he is and he attacked. That’s his sickness. He couldn’t respond in any other way.”
The reporter has since addressed the president’s eruption at a question he says was a “softball.”
In an appearance on MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell, Alexander explained, “In TV terms, we call this a softball.”
“I was trying to provide the president an opportunity to reassure the millions of Americans, members of my own family, and my neighbors in my community and plenty of people sitting at home right now. This was his opportunity to do that, to provide a positive or uplifting message.”
“Instead,” he continued, “you saw the president’s answer to that question right now.”
“The bottom line is this is a president whose experiences in life are very different than most Americans across this country right now. Not a person who likely worries about finances or has worried about his future, not a person worried about where he’ll find a paycheck for his bills or his rent,” Alexander said.
“And as evidenced by the president suggesting that an opportunity to provide for Americans some reassurance about how they should feel right now, the president instead took it out on me.”
h/t: NBC News
