President Donald Trump no longer calls his daily press conferences “Coronavirus Task Force briefings,” but up until Friday they still usually last up to two hours, including his robust attacks on the White House press corps. Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx were absent from Friday’s briefing, which lasted only about 21 minutes.
Clearly in response to Trump’s extremely dangerous remarks Thursday, suggesting doctors test the “injection” of disinfectants into the human body to try to cure coronavirus, along with dangerous quackery of inserting ultraviolet light or heat into the body to generate a miracle coronavirus cure, the White House decided to draw a line and stop the President from answering any more questions.
“A number of Trump’s most trusted advisers — both inside and outside the White House — have urged him to stop doing marathon televised briefings,” Axios reported minutes after the briefing ended. “They’ve told him he’s overexposed and these appearances are part of the reason polls aren’t looking good for him right now against Joe Biden.”
“I told him it’s not helping him,” said one adviser to the president. “Seniors are scared. And the spectacle of him fighting with the press isn’t what people want to see.”
Earlier Friday in a lie Trump claimed his remarks about testing an injection of disinfectant were merely “sarcasm.”