Live Blog below, these things are only supposed to last 30 minutes, depending on Trump’s mood. They often start as late as an hour and 15 minutes, although yesterday seemed to be 15 minutes early. The usual questions will include whether Anthony Fauci will be present, whether Trump gets angry, and whether Pence will put up his “15 days” prop.
The bottom line is that Trump’s daily briefings are (a) run like campaign events, and (b) full of falsehoods, including some that can be deadly.
Believe me, I understand why cable networks feel like they have to broadcast these press briefings live. Trump is the president of the United States in the middle of a horrific pandemic. Of course you broadcast them. But eventually, in the cause of informing the public fully and truthfully, this has to stop. Reporters need to sit through the briefings, decide what’s important, verify it with other administration sources, andthenput it on the air. This will take only a little extra time and will endanger no one. Given Trump’s dangerous track record of distortion and fabrication during these briefings, it’s the only prudent option.
“Trump is like a bad actor trying to play the role of a normal president—a role he hates and so misunderstands that he just can’t do it, and instead resorts to hamming it up onstage.” https://t.co/o4C41cmCaO
182 people have died today. CNN currently has a death toll of 898.
The novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in the U.S. on Jan. 20 in a 35-year-old man who had traveled to Wuhan, China, before returning to Washington state. Since then, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease has spread to at least 60,115 people in the U.S., across all 50 states.
Of those reported cases, 827 people have died in the U.S., with at least 271 deaths in New York and 123 in Washington state. Globally, 451,355 cases have been confirmed, with 20,499 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins dashboard. www.livescience.com/…
