For a brief moment, it seemed as if reporters were going to take Monday’s White House’s press briefing on the coronavirus outbreak seriously.
Alas.
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On Monday, as President Trump addressed members of the White House Press Corps on his administration’s response to the viral pandemic, Yahoo! News’s Hunter Walker screamed down his colleagues to ask the chief executive a very important question about bucks and where they stop.
Yes, that Hunter Walker. As in, the Hunter Walker who used his access to then-GOP candidate Trump to ask him about the death of Harambe the gorilla; the same Hunter Walker who created the “Muslim database” hysteria; the same Hunter Walker who had a meltdown on social media after the Washington Examiner published an article titled “Media openly cheers Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling.”
Yahoo! News’s White House correspondent, who showed up to Monday’s briefing in black gloves like he is the white O.J. Simpson, also asked Trump to rate the White House’s handling of the viral pandemic.
“Mr. President! Thank you very much!” Walker screamed. “Thank you very much, Mr. President!”
He added, shouting down his colleague, “You already talked!”
“Mr. President,” Walker continued, “the other day you said that you were not responsible for the testing shortfall. Very simple question: Does the buck stop with you?”
Well, at least this is a step up from asking questions about Harambe.
“And on a scale of 1-10,” Walker continued, “how would you rate your response to this crisis?”
Trump gave himself a “10.”
Thank you to everyone involved in this exchange. We all learned a lot today.
Walker’s questions serve no public interest. They serve only the Yahoo! reporter, who clearly hoped his questions would prompt a silly or quotable response from the president — something to really draw in the clicks. Good call, my man! Because a White House press briefing on a viral pandemic is definitely the place to mess around with stupid references to Harry Truman and questions about self-rating.
The coronavirus outbreak is no joke. This is a real and deadly issue. The virus, which is in more than 120 countries, has already claimed more than 5,000 lives.
Yet some in our vaunted news media just cannot help themselves. They cannot resist the urge to take an otherwise somber occasion, including a White House press briefing on the administration’s effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and flip it around into a self-serving opportunity to draw clicks and create headlines.
Meet Yahoo! News’s Hunter Walker. Don’t be like Hunter.
