Former Rep. Trey Gowdy said President Trump should not “punch down” at reporters during White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings.
To help avoid these confrontations and to dodge the accompanying bad press, the South Carolina Republican recommended Trump let healthcare professionals handle questions on how to treat the virus.
“My advice to the president is to let the healthcare professionals handle explaining our healthcare response. He should be the comforter-in-chief, the encourager-in-chief. He should mix in hope with a reality of the statistics, but let the healthcare professionals handle giving us advice on how we should treat this virus,” Gowdy said Sunday on Fox & Friends.
“It is very frustrating to feel like you’re constantly the object of unfair critique. But it’s been that way for four years, and I don’t think he needs to punch down to individual reporters during these White House briefings,” the former federal prosecutor added. “I mean, let the doctors handle those questions, be the president of the United States. That’s an incredible honor that very few people will ever have, so don’t punch down the individual reporters as tempting as it may be.”
Trump has repeatedly berated individual reporters during the near-daily briefings, including clashes with NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander and PBS NewsHour reporter Yamiche Alcindor. The latest round of unflattering headlines came after Trump floated the use of UV light or disinfectant injections to treat COVID-19 virus patients, prompting a wave of warnings from disinfectant producers and public health officials. Trump later said his talk about disinfectants was “sarcastic.”
After it was reported by Axios on Friday that Trump plans to cut back on the briefings, the president vented about how reporters have treated him during the events meant to provide the public an update on the administration’s response to the pandemic.
“What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately,” he tweeted on Saturday. “They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!”
A coronavirus task force press briefing was not held on Saturday, and there are no public events listed on Trump’s schedule for Sunday.
