Olivier Douliery/AFP via GettyPresident
Donald Trump left Friday’s coronavirus task force briefing without
taking a single question just a day after stunning medical experts by using the daily briefing to float bizarre and dangerous ideas about possible coronavirus treatments, like injecting disinfectants.Reporters
tried to shout questions at the president to no avail Friday as Trump
ended what was an abnormally short briefing. The entire briefing, which
featured Trump talking at the start, lasted roughly 20 minutes. Idiot Alchemist Donald Trump Says Sun and Bleach Will Save YouWith Trump at the helm, the coronavirus briefings have often been unwieldy affairs,
sometimes running to almost two hours long and featuring sparring
matches between reporters and the president. Trump has appeared to
relish the daily confrontations with the press, and has gushed on Twitter about the briefings garnering high TV ratings. However,
a White House official confirmed to The Daily Beast that talks had been
underway “for a while” to thin out the briefings and that Trump had
appeared “more receptive” recently to the idea of not dominating each
one. But the official said that staffers do not know exactly when he’ll
start fading himself out. “Up to the president,” the official said.Trump
has been told by several top advisers repeatedly that the way the
briefings are currently conducted could in fact be inadvertently helping
the poll numbers of former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s likely
2020 general election rival.Still, whatever their private
counsel, few, if any, administration officials, surrogates, outside
allies, or Trump confidants were eager to go on the record to convey any
relief to the possible end to Trump’s relentless domination of the
briefings. Some administration officials feared doing so would anger the
president and risk having him double-down on holding daily marathon
performances. Others simply shrugged it off as just another thing that
was up to Trump’s discretion and impulses.“The president has the
best instincts for how to manage his public appearances,” Ed Brookover, a
former senior Trump adviser during the 2016 run, tersely noted on
Friday evening.During Thursday’s briefing, Trump used an
“emerging result” from the Department of Homeland Security that showed
sunlight and heat can weaken the spread of coronavirus to pose frightening questions about dangerous coronavirus treatments. ‘Jaw-Dropping’: Trump Slammed for Touting Dangerous New Virus Treatments After Favored Drug Is DiscreditedAt
one point, he asked Bill Bryan, who leads the science and technology
directorate at DHS, whether UV light could be used to help people with
the virus, whether sunlight could be brought “inside the body,” or
whether disinfectant materials could be injected into bodies or used to
cleanse bodies in the same way they disinfect surfaces. “So
supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or
just very powerful light and I think you said that hasn't been checked
but you’re going to test it? And then I said supposing you brought the
light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in
some other way,” Trump said, adding it “sounds interesting.” After
Bryan said that bleach and isopropyl alcohol kill the virus on surfaces
quickly, Trump pondered: “And then I see the disinfectant where it
knocks [the virus] out [from a surface] in a minute, one minute, and is
there a way we can do something like that [by] injection inside or
almost a cleaning, because you see it gets on the lungs and it does a
tremendous number?”His suggestions were immediately slammed by medical experts, federal health agencies and even bleach manufacturers, who pleaded with people not to ingest bleach.The president later backtracked on Friday, claiming he was being “sarcastic.”
“I was asking the question sarcastically to reporters like you, just to
see what would happen,” he told reporters at the White House. Amidst
the outcry from the medical community, Democrats went after Trump over
the dangerous concepts he was floating during a briefing that is
intended to provide Americans with helpful information during the deadly
pandemic. Biden took aim at him on Twitter Thursday
night. “UV light? Injecting disinfectant? Here’s an idea, Mr.
President: more tests. Now. And protective equipment for actual medical
professionals,” he tweeted A follow up tweet Friday was even simpler. “I can’t believe I have to say this, but please don’t drink bleach,” he wrote.White House Aides Groan, Try to Clean Up AfterNeither
Dr. Deborah Birx, the coronavirus task force response coordinator, or
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, appeared aStephen Hahn,
head of the Food and Drug Administration, briefly spoke at the start of
the briefing but wasn’t at the podium long enough to be asked out about
the president’s outlandish suggestions from the day before. He
took one question from a reporter on the topic of faulty antibody tests.
And Vice President Mike Pence gave a presentation detailing progress in
different states. But after he was finished, the briefing wrapped and
officials cleared the room immediately. Olivier Douliery/AFP via GettyPresident
Donald Trump left Friday’s coronavirus task force briefing without
taking a single question just a day after stunning medical experts by using the daily briefing to float bizarre and dangerous ideas about possible coronavirus treatments, like injecting disinfectants.Reporters
tried to shout questions at the president to no avail Friday as Trump
ended what was an abnormally short briefing. The entire briefing, which
featured Trump talking at the start, lasted roughly 20 minutes. Idiot Alchemist Donald Trump Says Sun and Bleach Will Save YouWith Trump at the helm, the coronavirus briefings have often been unwieldy affairs,
sometimes running to almost two hours long and featuring sparring
matches between reporters and the president. Trump has appeared to
relish the daily confrontations with the press, and has gushed on Twitter about the briefings garnering high TV ratings. However,
a White House official confirmed to The Daily Beast that talks had been
underway “for a while” to thin out the briefings and that Trump had
appeared “more receptive” recently to the idea of not dominating each
one. But the official said that staffers do not know exactly when he’ll
start fading himself out. “Up to the president,” the official said.Trump
has been told by several top advisers repeatedly that the way the
briefings are currently conducted could in fact be inadvertently helping
the poll numbers of former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s likely
2020 general election rival.Still, whatever their private
counsel, few, if any, administration officials, surrogates, outside
allies, or Trump confidants were eager to go on the record to convey any
relief to the possible end to Trump’s relentless domination of the
briefings. Some administration officials feared doing so would anger the
president and risk having him double-down on holding daily marathon
performances. Others simply shrugged it off as just another thing that
was up to Trump’s discretion and impulses.“The president has the
best instincts for how to manage his public appearances,” Ed Brookover, a
former senior Trump adviser during the 2016 run, tersely noted on
Friday evening.During Thursday’s briefing, Trump used an
“emerging result” from the Department of Homeland Security that showed
sunlight and heat can weaken the spread of coronavirus to pose frightening questions about dangerous coronavirus treatments. ‘Jaw-Dropping’: Trump Slammed for Touting Dangerous New Virus Treatments After Favored Drug Is DiscreditedAt
one point, he asked Bill Bryan, who leads the science and technology
directorate at DHS, whether UV light could be used to help people with
the virus, whether sunlight could be brought “inside the body,” or
whether disinfectant materials could be injected into bodies or used to
cleanse bodies in the same way they disinfect surfaces. “So
supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or
just very powerful light and I think you said that hasn't been checked
but you’re going to test it? And then I said supposing you brought the
light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in
some other way,” Trump said, adding it “sounds interesting.” After
Bryan said that bleach and isopropyl alcohol kill the virus on surfaces
quickly, Trump pondered: “And then I see the disinfectant where it
knocks [the virus] out [from a surface] in a minute, one minute, and is
there a way we can do something like that [by] injection inside or
almost a cleaning, because you see it gets on the lungs and it does a
tremendous number?”His suggestions were immediately slammed by medical experts, federal health agencies and even bleach manufacturers, who pleaded with people not to ingest bleach.The president later backtracked on Friday, claiming he was being “sarcastic.”
“I was asking the question sarcastically to reporters like you, just to
see what would happen,” he told reporters at the White House. Amidst
the outcry from the medical community, Democrats went after Trump over
the dangerous concepts he was floating during a briefing that is
intended to provide Americans with helpful information during the deadly
pandemic. Biden took aim at him on Twitter Thursday
night. “UV light? Injecting disinfectant? Here’s an idea, Mr.
President: more tests. Now. And protective equipment for actual medical
professionals,” he tweeted A follow up tweet Friday was even simpler. “I can’t believe I have to say this, but please don’t drink bleach,” he wrote.White House Aides Groan, Try to Clean Up AfterNeither
Dr. Deborah Birx, the coronavirus task force response coordinator, or
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, appeared aStephen Hahn,
head of the Food and Drug Administration, briefly spoke at the start of
the briefing but wasn’t at the podium long enough to be asked out about
the president’s outlandish suggestions from the day before. He
took one question from a reporter on the topic of faulty antibody tests.
And Vice President Mike Pence gave a presentation detailing progress in
different states. But after he was finished, the briefing wrapped and
officials cleared the room immediately.
Comments
Post a Comment