Donald Trump touted on Monday that he will resume “very successful” briefings on the pandemic after his frequent appearances in updates to the White House Coronavirus Task Force ceased.
The president insisted that briefings are the best way to inform Americans about the coronavirus crisis, especially amid rising infection rates, as Trump says he will bring them back starting Tuesday.
“We will give him many briefings in the coming week and in the coming weeks about, I think it is very important to do so,” Trump said as he spoke to the press after his meeting in the Oval Office with the Republican leadership. .
Trump stopped appearing at press conferences after a particular update in the James S. Brady Information Room in April, where he received especially high criticism after claiming that Lysol, bleach, and other disinfectants could work as a treatment for the coronavirus. .
He also said that the heat and going out in the sun were effective treatments.
Following a study that revealed that common disinfection kills the virus on surfaces, Trump suggested, and later said that the idea was jokingly proposed, that disinfectant be injected into patients to treat COVID-19.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he will bring back briefings on the White House coronavirus starting Tuesday after he stopped presenting in April.
The comments came after the president’s meeting with Republican Party leaders in the Oval Office regarding a new coronavirus stimulus package.
The president said the 5:00 pm prime time briefings broke television records and insisted they are the best way to inform Americans about the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump also said he wants to resume briefings as the number of new daily cases continues to rise in some states, such as Florida and Texas, as the virus has exploded in recent weeks.
As of Monday, there are more than 3.7 million confirmed cases in the US, and the death toll has exceeded 140,000.
A few weeks after the president stopped attending the briefings, they ceased altogether.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox & Friends during an interview on Friday that Trump should continue to update the public directly on the coronavirus situation.
“I think the president should be doing that,” he said, adding that his opinion was different from that of other White House staff members.
Conway insisted that his surveys were “much higher when he was there informing everyone day by day, simply giving information to people,” recognizing his survey numbers.
An average of FiveThirtyEight through Friday shows that 58% of Americans disapprove of the way the president handles the crisis and 38% approve of it.
Press conferences of the president and the task force, held with a limited number of media in the era of social estrangement, produced a record audience on television as they were held around 5:00 pm every day.
‘Well, we had very successful briefings. I was doing them and we had a lot of people watching, recording people watching, ‘Trump boasted to journalists in the Oval Office. ‘In the history of cable television, television has never been like this. And we were doing very well.
The nation’s top immunologist at the National Institute of Health, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is also part of the task force, stopped appearing at briefings after several reports emerged about him and the president’s standoff.
During a briefing in March, Fauci could be seen smiling and ‘slapping his face’ in response to some of the president’s comments.
Trump revealed that he would begin holding briefings starting Tuesday after a meeting with Republican leaders, including lawmakers and cabinet members, on Monday morning to discuss the new coronavirus-stimulating legislation.
During his impromptu remarks, Trump joined Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Vice President Mike Pence, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who helped negotiate previous coronavirus stimulus legislation with Democrats in Congress.
Trump said he would still hold briefings at 5:00 p.m. with members of the task force, led by Pence, and said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany would continue her own press conferences at 11: 00 am
Trump stopped showing up for briefings in April after being criticized for suggesting that he inject Lysol, bleach, and other household disinfectants to treat patients with coronavirus.
Part of the team and the nation’s top immunologist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, could sometimes be seen reacting to the president’s comments with a smile or a palm.
“I think it is a great way to disseminate information to the public about where we are with vaccines, therapeutics, and generally where we are,” Trump said. “And I think we will probably start that from tomorrow.”
“I will do it at 5:00 as we were doing: we had a good space,” he said of the prime-time briefings. “And a lot of people were watching, and that’s a good thing.”
Trump once again called the disease the “China Virus,” which many have denounced as racist.
However, the president claims it is just a name he uses to distinguish where the virus originated, as he continues to criticize China for exacerbating severity by failing to warn the rest of the world when the initial breakup occurred there.
“I will talk about, as I call it, the China Virus, the plague of China,” Trump said of the briefings. “I will discuss it, and I will also discuss, perhaps, some other things.”
The president also anticipated during his comments Monday that some of those reports could include guests from companies working on vaccines and therapies for coronavirus.
“I think I am going to bring in some of the big companies that are working, and very successfully in the past have worked on these things,” Trump said. ‘And they will tell you, very specifically, what they are doing and how they are doing it. We believe we are doing very well in that regard.
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