Donald Trump is holding another coronavirus briefing on Sunday, and this one was moved from the regular briefing room to the Rose Garden. Because for Trump, everything is a reality show.
Over 2000 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus and thousands more have been afflicted all over the country and the world.
States across the nation are ramping up efforts to stop the spread. The CDC issued a travel advisory for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Earlier today Trump — who swiped at some Democratic governors during the last briefing — took to Twitter to attack the “Lamestream Media” and tout the ratings these press briefings are getting.
Trump’s press conference started with some reading errors, where he meant to say “sick patients” and instead said “six patients.”
Trump reading fail. As he tries to explain the experimental plasma treatment, Trump calls sick patients, "six patients." pic.twitter.com/2nhk8fhl2Q [1]
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 29, 2020 [2]
Trump then wondered why doctors and medical professionals just couldn’t use masks a couple times…because he’s smarter than most doctors, remember?
Trump asks why doctors and first responders can't reuse masks a second, third, or fourth time." pic.twitter.com/GuPVwZq9BM [3]
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 29, 2020 [4]
Trump is also clearly lying about testing, and was called out immediately by the Washington Post’s video editor:
TRUMP: “We've been doing more tests than any other country anywhere in the world. It's one of the reasons that we have more cases”
The U.S. lags behind many countries in testing per capita.
As of Friday, the U.S. had only tested 0.2% of its population.https://t.co/tTlQnrY8vw [5] pic.twitter.com/98iXMMPI7K [6]
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) March 29, 2020 [7]
Trump then made the crazy suggestion that nurses and doctors are maybe stealing or hoarding masks?
"How do you go from 10 to 20 to 30,000, to 300,000 — even though this is different. Something is going on. And you ought to look into it as reporters. Where are the masks going?" — Trump suggests that there is some sort of New York nurse conspiracy to steal masks pic.twitter.com/6vubm89vgQ [8]
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 29, 2020 [9]
Absolutely revolting.
Trump launches in a conspiracy and claims that hospitals are lying about the number of masks that they need and tells reporters to investigate it. pic.twitter.com/kRQYUINuRi [10]
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 29, 2020 [11]
Twitter is disgusted:
Did Trump just accuse health care providers of stealing surgical masks?
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) March 29, 2020 [12]
trump's now saying doctors and hospitals are operating a black market in ventilators and masks. mass murderer continues to rant.
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) March 29, 2020 [13]
Trump suggests, providing no evidence, that there is something nefarious going on with New York's use of a large number of masks: "Something's going on, and you oughtta look into it. Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door?"
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 29, 2020 [14]
Trump seems to be questioning how hospitals’ demand for masks has skyrocketed so much recently. “Are they going out the back door? … Somebody should probably look into that. I just don’t see from a practical standpoint how it’s possible to go from that to that."
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) March 29, 2020 [15]
Trump accuses hospitals in NY of selling masks out of the ‘back door’ classic Trump move of blaming the victim. Also a new low in the history of our republic. @realDonaldTrump [16]
— NoelCaslerComedy (@CaslerNoel) March 29, 2020 [17]
Trump: How do you go from 10K to 300K masks? You are ALL reporters you should look into it.
ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?
It is called a PANDEMIC. WE ARE DESPERATELY IN NEED OF MASKS!#COVID19 [18]
— Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) March 29, 2020 [19]
holy shit Trump is demanding reporters investigate "where the masks are going" cuz he doesn't believe hospitals could need so many: "something is going on"
yes, something is going on – it's called a fucking pandemic.
— Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) March 29, 2020 [20]