Today’s White House coronavirus briefing is starting now. Trump starts by saying the media has been nicer since social distancing started? Also calls it the “China virus” again.
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Trump says he’s working to secure the release of journalist Austin Tice who was kidnapped in Syria.
“Syria, please work with us,” he says before turning to coronavirus.
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Yesterday Trump said he thinks of himself as a wartime president. Today he says, “Our big war is not a financial war, it’s a medical war.”
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Trump said the FDA has approved hydroxychloroquine, a malaria and arthritis drug for use as a COVID-19 treatment, “It’s shown very encouraging early results,” Trump said
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The surgeon general encourages millennials and gen z to donate blood, saying social distancing doesn’t have to mean socially disconnecting.
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Trump says he was prepared for this and the proof is that he banned people from China from coming into the US. “I was the first one to do the ban. Now other countries are doing what I did, but the media doesn’t want to write about that.”
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Trump says he can’t say if there will be an international travel ban but is meeting with the State Department later today.
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Trump gets asked about China reporting no new cases for the first time since the outbreak and if he has any reason to disbelieve that report. “Who knows,” he says. “But I hope it’s true.”
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Trump says reporters, who are keeping seats between them, are sitting too close. “Really we should probably get rid of another 75, 80 percent of you,” he says. “I’ll have just two or three I like in this room.”
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A reporter from OAN asks if Trump thinks the phrase “Chinese food” is racist (he says he doesn’t) and then basically says the media is teaming up with communists to make the president seem racist, giving Trump an opening to monologue about “fake news.” Great work everyone!
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