President Trump snapped at a reporter who asked him why he cares if the United States has the largest testing capacity in the world.
“Why does that matter? Why is this a global competition to you if every day Americans are still losing their lives?” asked CBS White House reporter Weijia Jiang.
“They are losing their lives everywhere in the world,” Trump responded. “And maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me. Ask China that question, OK? When you ask them that question, you might get a very unusual answer.”
Trump then attempted to call on another reporter, but Jiang, who was born in China and raised in West Virginia after immigrating as a young child, spoke up again.
“Sir, why are you saying that to me, specifically?” she asked. “That I should ask China.”
“I’m not saying it specifically to anybody,” Trump said. “I’m saying it to anybody that would ask a nasty question like that.”
The president has been critical of the Chinese government for not doing more to contain the spread of the coronavirus during the early days of the pandemic and for failing to immediately alert world health officials about the dangers of the disease.
