‘I’m not being overly optimistic or pessimistic. I sure as hell think we oughta give it a try…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) President Donald Trump on Friday shut down an NBC reporter for sensationalist fearmongering while trying to convey a message of optimism about a potential treatment for the coronavirus.
“What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?” asked NBC’s Peter Alexander.
“I’d say that you’re a terrible reporter. That’s what I’d say,” Trump replied.
The exchange with Alexander came as Trump was responding to a prior question about hydroxychloroquine, a drug currently used to treat malaria, which is being tested by the Food and Drug Administration and “anecdotally” has yielded some positive results.
During the president’s Q&A session at what has become a daily press briefing with the coronavirus task force, Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, cautioned reporters not to jump the gun on the treatment.
He warned that it had not yet been tested in a clinical trial. “It was given to individuals who felt that maybe that worked.”
Trump said he agreed with Fauci, but that he also felt optimistic about its chances of success.
“I’m probably more of a fan of that, maybe than anybody,” he said. “It’s early, but I’ve seen things that are impressive.”
Peter Alexander / IMAGE: C-SPAN via Youtube
In a follow-up, however, Alexander pressed further by insinuating that the president’s optimistic tone was misleading the public.
Trump responded that there was no reason not to be hopeful about its prospects.
“I feel good about it,” he said. “That’s all it is, just a feeling. I’m a smart guy… and we’re gonna see, we’re gonna see soon enough.”
He noted that the drug had been on the market already for 20 years and was prescribed for malaria.
“It’s not a drug that you have a huge amount of danger with,” he said. “It’s not a drug that may have an unbelievable effect, like kill you… I’m not being overly optimistic or pessimistic. I sure as hell think we oughta give it a try.”
Alexander continued to push his defeatist line of questioning, asking the president, insisting that millions of people were terrified about the potential virus fallout, but Trump was having none of it and shut him down before quickly moving to another question.
After facing frequent attacks for his initial virus response, as he sought to tamp down an economy-wrecking panic, Trump’s regular press briefings and efforts to unify the country in both the health crisis and economic stimulus have since garnered strong bipartisan praise.
The Hill reported that a majority of the public now viewed his handling of the crisis favorably.
Even frequent Trump critics like Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Govs. Andrew Cuomo, D-NY, and Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., have seemed to give him high marks for his somber but hopeful messaging.
Even so, some in the media have been unable to transcend their comfort-zones of kneejerk Trump-bashing during the crisis.
Several reporters during Wednesday’s press briefing accused Trump of racism for labeling the pandemic the “Chinese virus” and claimed, without evidence, that Asians were being persecuted as a result.
