WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump defended a call that might bar foreign nationals who had recently visited China from getting into america a
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump defended a call that might bar foreign nationals who had recently visited China from getting into america as his administration continued to evaluate the rising menace of a coronavirus outbreak.
Sitting with the Fox Information persona Sean Hannity, Mr. Trump used a roughly nine-minute interview taped on Saturday night at Mar-a-Lago, his non-public membership in Florida, and broadcast on Sunday as a chance to condense his normal rally-speak into Tremendous Bowl pregame chatter. The matters included the virus, his impeachment and quick-paced insults of his potential 2020 rivals.
“We just about shut it down coming in from China,” Mr. Trump mentioned of the coronavirus. “However we are able to’t have hundreds of individuals coming in who might have this downside, the coronavirus. We’re going to see what occurs, however we did shut it down, sure.”
He mentioned his administration was providing the Chinese language “super assist” to include the unfold of the virus. On Sunday afternoon, the administration put in force a rule that might additionally primarily quarantine American vacationers who had visited China throughout the previous two weeks, diverting them to seven airports “to implement enhanced screening procedures,” in keeping with tips issued Sunday by the Division of Homeland Safety.
There have been seven confirmed coronavirus circumstances in america, however no deaths.
Earlier within the day, Robert C. O’Brien, Mr. Trump’s nationwide safety adviser, appeared on tv to advise Individuals that there was “no motive to panic” concerning the unfold of the virus. Certainly, throughout his Fox sit-down, each Mr. Trump and his interviewer appeared extra considering permitting the president to give attention to his grievances over impeachment and his re-election effort quite than elaborate on a world public well being disaster.
“It’s been very unfair from the day I received,” Mr. Trump mentioned. “Largely it was unfair to my household.”
He derided the impeachment effort as “a hoax” and mentioned he had not thought to delay his annual State of the Union handle earlier than the fruits this week of his Senate trial — an anticipated acquittal that Mr. Hannity framed as a “fait accompli.”
Mr. Trump then spent a big a part of the interview insulting a slate of potential Democratic rivals. He and Mr. Hannity performed a lightning spherical the place Mr. Hannity invited the president to say no matter got here to thoughts about Democratic presidential candidates, together with former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Michael R. Bloomberg, the previous mayor of New York.
Mr. Trump falsely known as Mr. Sanders a “communist” and claimed that he had been married in Russia.
“I consider communism after I consider Bernie,” Mr. Trump mentioned. “Didn’t he get married in Moscow?”
Mr. Sanders married in Burlington, Vt., before traveling to the Soviet Union quickly after, and the journey has been used as fodder by his critics as proof that he has communist leanings.
At one level, Mr. Trump falsely claimed that Mr. Bloomberg had requested a “field” to face on ought to he attend a Democratic debate, a remark that drew sharp rebukes from each Mr. Bloomberg and his spokeswoman, Julie Wooden, who known as the president a “pathological liar who lies about every part: his pretend hair, his weight problems and his spray-on tan.”
Mr. Trump additionally known as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who oversaw the impeachment effort into his presidency, a “very confused, very nervous lady,” including that Ms. Pelosi wouldn’t final in workplace: “I feel the unconventional left goes to take over.”