President Trump raised eyebrows in Washington with a contentious White House briefing Monday that allies saw as furthering two goals important to his reelection: defending his administration’s handling of the coronavirus and rallying the base against perceived media bias in favor of his Democratic challenger.
To that end, Trump showed a short video that featured Democratic governors and other officials praising his work with them in managing the pandemic. When reporters incredulously questioned why they had to sit through a production they likened to a campaign video, Trump replied, “Because we’re getting fake news, and I like to have it corrected.”
Trump has shown a willingness to mix it up with the press throughout his presidency, and the coronavirus briefings have been no exception. CBS News’s Paula Reid, a lawyer by training, joined a roster of Trump’s media sparring partners that includes CNN’s Jim Acosta, PBS’ Yamiche Alcindor, and NBC’s Peter Alexander. Reid demanded to know what the White House had done to prepare for the outbreak in February. “You know you’re a fake, you know that,” Trump shot back. “That’s why you have a lower approval rating than you’ve ever had before, times probably three.”
“Americans want to see their president out front and in command in a crisis, and that’s exactly what President Trump is doing,” said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh. “While the president is leading the nation in a war against the coronavirus, Joe Biden and the media have decided to play the opposition in that war. They would rather score political points against President Trump than reliably inform the American people. It used to be that we would unite as a country in times of crisis, but the media and Biden have thrown that principle out the window.”
CNN displayed no fewer than four chyrons editorializing against the president’s performance: “Trump melts down in angry response to reports he ignored virus warnings”; “Trump refuses to acknowledge any mistakes”; “Angry Trump turns briefing into propaganda session”; and “Trump uses task force briefing to try and rewrite history on coronavirus response.”
Many Republicans had a different reaction to the briefing. “I thought the POTUS defense was perfect,” said Bradley Blakeman, a former aide to President George W. Bush. “He used the best unfiltered and direct evidence to show the American people the truth of what he did, when he did, and why. Then he augmented it with bipartisan testimonials of governors who acknowledged the president’s can-do approach to mitigating and preventing harm.”
This split showed up on social media, with #TrumpMeltdown trending on Twitter at the same time many users were claiming it was the press corps melting down as Trump defended himself.
Trump’s pushback followed a spate of news stories over the weekend that painted an unflattering picture of his response to the coronavirus. The president seemed especially exercised by a long New York Times article headlined, “He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus.” Trump called the New York Times a “fake newspaper” that writes “fake stories.” Trump had hoped to begin reopening the U.S. economy over Easter weekend but abandoned that goal based on scientific advice.
When Trump began the daily briefings, his poll numbers on coping with the coronavirus went up. His approval ratings on that question have since broken down more on party lines. In a late March Gallup poll, the news media was the institution whose response to the virus pleased the public least, though most approved of the coverage in a more recent Pew survey.
Former White House press secretaries from both parties recently told the Washington Examiner they largely approved of the press corps’ performance but thought there should be more input from science reporters and fewer “gotcha questions” of a political nature. They also recommended shorter briefings. Some analysts have complained that both Trump and the media focus too much on themselves and fighting with each other.
Trump allies argue the president is angrily defending medical experts on his coronavirus team, including Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx, and task force leader Vice President Mike Pence, as much as himself. “The president has surrounded himself with the best and brightest minds inside and outside of government,” said Blakeman. “He knows he cannot get a fair shake from the press, and thus, he is immune from their attacks, because at the end of the day, it will be the people who decide whether or not he acted in the best interests of the nation.”
Republican complaints about liberal media bias date back to at least the Nixon administration, but observers say the impact can be overstated. “By November this will be about who can get the economy going, not on who said what when about a White House press briefing,” said GOP strategist Brad Todd.
