Donald Trump cut short his Rose Garden news conference today after two reporters stood up to him. It happened after CBS’s Weijia Jiang asked the president why it seemed like he was declaring victory over other countries when it comes to coronavirus.
.@weijia: Why is this a global competition to you when Americans are losing their lives every day?
TRUMP: Maybe that’s a question you should ask China.
WEIJA: Why are you saying that to me, specifically?
TRUMP: I’m saying it to anybody who would ask a nasty question like that. pic.twitter.com/hokJOXASh8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 11, 2020
CNN’s Brian Stelter said: “What we saw in that exchange with Weijia Jiang was something that has racial overtones. It’s racist to look at an Asian-American @WhiteHouse correspondent and say ‘Ask China.'”
.@realDonaldTrump walked out instead of taking a question from @KaitlanCollins
Trump truly is a coward who is terrified of intelligent female reporters pic.twitter.com/V3psOoSzA3
— Edward Hardy (@EdwardTHardy) May 11, 2020
This is what racism and misogyny looks like, @realDonaldTrump.
Once again, women reporters are showing us what bravery looks like in the face of a racist and sexist president. @weijia @KaitlanCollinspic.twitter.com/viRNQTWFnz
— reshmasaujani (@reshmasaujani) May 11, 2020
Trump has had snits when asked hard questions before, but his fleeing after telling @weijia to “ask China” felt a little different–it was like you could see him realizing in real time that this was going south and abruptly bailed before it could get any worse.
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) May 11, 2020
Earlier, a reporter with The Washington Post asked Trump if he would name the crime he accused former president Barack Obama of committing. Over the weekend Trump had tweeted that Obama had committed the worst crime in U.S. political history. Turns out it was another conspiracy theory pushed by Fox News.
Vox writes: “You might be wondering why this even came up during a press conference about coronavirus testing. The answer appears to be that with the US leading the world in deaths and the number of new cases in the country not yet showing a strong downward trend, Trump believes fresh conspiracy-mongering about Obama is politically useful for him — even if there is no basis for them.
“The rest of the press conference proved the point: After repeating misinformation about testing and the state of coronavirus cases, he abruptly ended the event and huffed off the stage when two female reporters asked him pointed questions.”
The president doesn't like answering questions. Especially when those questions are substantive. And especially, it seems, when those questions are asked by women. And especially when those women are women of color.
— Dan Rather (@DanRather) May 12, 2020