Trump’s spin about his coronavirus remedy feedback is belied by video

On Saturday, President Donald Trump accused the media of misreporting the info surrounding his broadly ridiculed feedback on Thursday about disinfectant injections and daylight being attainable miracle coronavirus therapies.

There’s only one drawback — there’s video proving he’s mendacity. It demonstrates the lengths to which he’s prepared to go to shift blame as an alternative of merely admitting he misspoke.

Trump’s new line, as expressed in tweets posted on Saturday, is that the “corrupt & sick” media obtained it “mistaken” by reporting that he was “talking & asking questions of Dr. Deborah Birx” about “daylight and so forth. & the CoronaVirus.”

“What’s the goal of getting White Home Information Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing however hostile questions, & then refuses to report the reality or info precisely,” the president continued.

However video from Thursday’s briefing exhibits clearly that Trump was talking on to Birx when he requested her, “I would love you to talk to the medical docs to see if there’s any approach that you would be able to apply gentle and warmth to remedy [coronavirus] … I’m not a physician, however I’m, like, an individual who has a very good you-know-what.”

Suffice it to say that Birx appeared lower than thrilled with Trump’s feedback. Look ahead to your self:

Right here’s the backstory: Throughout Thursday’s briefing, William Bryan, undersecretary for Science and Expertise on the Division of Homeland Safety, mentioned preliminary authorities analysis indicating that “warmth and humidity suppress Covid-19” and “generally obtainable disinfectants work to kill the virus.”

After Bryan’s presentation, Trump took to the rostrum and made a deeply weird inference.

“Supposing we hit the physique with an incredible, whether or not it’s ultraviolet or simply very highly effective gentle … after which I mentioned supposing you introduced the sunshine contained in the physique, which you are able to do both by means of the pores and skin or in another approach. And I believe you mentioned you’re gonna check that,” Trump mentioned, addressing Bryan. “After which I see disinfectant, the place it knocks it [coronavirus] out in a minute — one minute — and is there a approach we will do one thing like that by injection inside, or virtually a cleansing. As a result of, you see, it will get within the lungs and it does an incredible quantity on the lungs, so it’d be attention-grabbing to test that. So, that you just’re going to have to make use of medical docs with, nevertheless it sounds attention-grabbing to me.”

The trade with Birx occurred later throughout the briefing.

Trump’s tweets claiming he wasn’t addressing Birx when he made his weird “gentle and warmth” feedback represented the second straight day he tried to rewrite historical past about Thursday’s briefing. On Friday, as his feedback got here beneath heavy criticism, Trump instructed reporters he was being “sarcastic” and merely asking a “query to the reporters within the room about disinfectant on the within.”

Nonetheless, video on this occasion additionally proves that neither of these claims is true.

Whereas Trump desperately tries to spin the incident into grist for an assault on the press, Birx has gone to painstaking lengths to keep away from criticizing the president. Throughout a Fox Information interview that aired over the weekend, she mentioned of the president, “When he will get new info, he likes to speak that by means of out loud … I believe he simply noticed the knowledge on the time instantly earlier than the press convention and he was nonetheless digesting.”

Then, throughout a CNN look Sunday, Birx expressed frustration that individuals are nonetheless speaking concerning the incident three days later.

“It bothers me that that is nonetheless within the information cycle,” she mentioned. “I fear that we don’t get the knowledge to the American people who they want once we proceed to carry up one thing that was from Thursday night time.”

One may argue Birx must be extra upset that Trump would make such irresponsible feedback — ones that prompted a rise in calls to emergency hotlines in numerous states. Nonetheless, the White Home coronavirus job pressure coordinator has already made it abundantly clear that not solely is she unwilling to criticize the president, however she’ll say no matter it takes to remain in his good graces.

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