White House Coronavirus Briefing Cancelled As Trump Slams Media As ‘Enemy Of The People’

TOPLINE

The White House, which has not held a coronavirus press briefing since Friday, cancelled its Monday briefing following a weekend of tweets by President Donald Trump accusing the media of misrepresenting him.

KEY FACTS

Key background

Trump’s already acrimonious relationship with the press reached new lows over the past several days. On Thursday, he suggested during the White House briefing that experts look into creating injectable treatments for coronavirus using sunlight or disinfectants, prompting public ridicule and Reckitt Benckiser, the company that makes Lysol, to issue a warning to not ingest its products. The next day, Trump claimed he was joking . Just before that briefing started, a White House official reportedly asked CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins to move to the back of the room, and threatened to get the Secret Service involved when she refused to move. Over the weekend, he continued to claim that his recommendation was taken out of context.

On Sunday, he said in tweets that have since been deleted that journalists who investigated his dealings with Russia should return their “Nobles.” As there is no Nobel Prize for journalism, many on social media mocked that comment as well. He claimed that was meant to be sarcastic, as well. McEnamy said that Monday’s cancellation is not due to the criticism he has received recently, according to NPR.

Tangent

Trump’s recent comments at the briefings provided ample fodder for Saturday Night Live this week, which featured Brad Pitt in a gray wig and using a Brooklyn accent to play Dr. Anthony Fauci fact checking the president. “When he said ‘everyone can get a test’ what he meant was ‘almost no one,’” Pitt said as Fauci.

Further reading

Freed of briefing duty, wounded Trump airs full collection of grievances on Twitter, retweeting claim of ‘coup attempts’ (Washington Post)

Birx Says Social Distancing Will Continue Through Summer (Forbes)

Study Shows Areas Where Hannity Reigns Over Carlson Had Worse Coronavirus Outbreaks; Fox News Slams Findings As ‘Reckless’ (Forbes)

Michael Bloomberg Poured Over $1 Billion Into His Presidential Campaign (Forbes)

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