Tag: yamiche alcindor
Trump goals, coronavirus, Trump lies

Trump Lies About March Rallies — And PBS Reporter Nails Him

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor called out President Donald Trump for falsely claiming he hasn't left the White House "in months" at a press briefing on Monday evening.

Trump was attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has criticized the administration's slow and negligent response to the coronavirus crisis. In response, critics have pointed out that, as late as Feb. 24, Pelosi told people to go to Chinatown in an effort to mollify the growing fears of the coronavirus. While in retrospect, any advice to go out at this time was likely a mistake, the Trump administration itself was weeks away from issuing any guidance discouraging public gatherings. And, as Alcindor pointed out, Trump was holding campaign rallies throughout February and into March, which potentially could have served to spread the virus.

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Trump Berates PBS Reporter Who Asked About Disbanded Pandemic Group

Trump Berates PBS Reporter Who Asked About Disbanded Pandemic Group

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

PBS NewsHour’s Yamiche Alcindor asked the best and most incisive question during President Donald Trump’s Friday press conference about the coronavirus — and the president lashed out in response.

She noted that earlier in the press conference Trump had said he doesn’t “take responsibility at all” for the administration’s failures to respond to the virus outbreak thus far.

“But you did disband the White House pandemic office,” she said. “And the officials working in that office left this administration abruptly. So what responsibility do you take to that? And the officials that worked in that office said that you — that the White House lost valuable time because that office was disbanded. What do you make of that?”

“Well, I just think it’s a nasty question,” Trump said, despite Alcindor’s complete civility and accuracy.

He continued: “When you say ‘me,’ I didn’t do it.”

“It’s your administration,” Alcindor pointed out.

“It’s my administration,” he responded. “You say we did that, I don’t know anything about it.”

“You don’t know about the reorganization at the National Security Council?” she asked.

“It’s the administration, perhaps they do that, you know?” he said.

It was a stunning display of peevishness, ignorance, and ineptitude. If it’s true that Trump didn’t know about the disbanding of the pandemic group, then he was utterly negligent in his role as president. Of course, the situation isn’t any better if he did know since it shows — as this entire crisis has made clear — that he doesn’t take the threat of disease outbreaks seriously.

Some pointed out, too, that Trump’s comments exposed his hypocrisy given his past claims about leadership:

Watch the exchange below:

IMAGE: PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor at White House news conference, March 17 (screenshot).