President Donald Trump called a surprise news conference at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Friday night, and spoke to reporters before a crowd of cheerful club members infused the event with the tone of a miniature campaign rally.
Trump took the opportunity to reiterate false claims that Covid-19 is ‘disappearing’, contradicting the findings of his foreign intelligence service in the election, and making misleading and dubious claims about the use of executive orders for gridlock. of Washington – while also announcing plans to implement a policy that already exists.
Before the event began, Trump was caught chatting with his members about the press with language intended to delegitimize expected criticism.
‘You will meet the false news tonight. You’ll see what I have to go through, “Trump said. according to CNN’s Jim Acosta. “Who’s there? Oh, all my killers are there, wow. You’ll see some of the people we deal with every day.”
Throughout the conference, Trump appeared to be playing for the club for him. For example, when a reporter recalled the fact that some club members decided not to wear masks during the event, Trump declined by claiming that his supporters had no obligation to do so because they were engaged in “peaceful protest. “, causing the laughter and cheering of the crowd.
In his remarks directly addressing the coronavirus pandemic, Trump reiterated a false claim he made Wednesday, saying, “It disappears, it will disappear.”
“It’s Gonna Disappear” – Trump’s still false here that the coronavirus will just disappear in one day, trying to turn reality upside down by suggesting that more than 10 percent unemployment is good pic.twitter.com/R3XS7w1mBI
– Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 7, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Trump administration’s chief physician, recently refuted this claim in an interview with Reuters, calling it “unlikely” – saying that although he believes public health measures and a successful vaccine will help the world Getting Covid-19 under control, “I do not think we will remove this from the planet.”
The number of Americans dying from the coronavirus shows just how far the country is from reaching that point – and how false Trump’s persistent promise that the virus will disappear. Deaths from Covid-19 in the U.S. increased for the fifth straight week this week, according to the Covid Tracking Project. And many public health experts do not expect a vaccine that could limit the threat posed by the coronavirus until mid-2021.
In his remarks Friday, Trump also raised a debunked conversation point that cases of the virus only went up “because we do a lot of testing.” A STAT analysis in July showed that in the overwhelming majority of states, the case count has increased in recent months “because there was actually more disease.” In addition, epidemiologists have pointed to increasing hospitalizations and deaths as a sign that the spread of Covid-19 has accelerated.
Most Americans do not accept Trump’s logic about testing, according to a Pew study conducted from July 27 to August 2. The researchers found that 60 percent of Americans do not agree that there are more Covid-19 cases because tests have increased. The researchers, however, found a marked partisan split on the issue, with 62 percent of Republicans feeling that most tests lead to more cases, a position with 19 percent of Democrats agreeing.
Trump also made false and misleading claims about elections and coronavirus relief
Beyond spreading misinformation about the coronavirus, the president also focused on the 2020 presidential election, and reduced the threat of foreign interference to him in the upcoming elections by blatantly escaping the findings of his own intelligence agencies while post-in -voices as dangerous throws.
When a reporter cited a new assessment by the U.S. intelligence community – which found that Russia was using a “range of measures” to undermine presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and that China was considering working to limit Trump’s chances of re-election – Trump dismissed it.
While the president initially said the intelligence in the report “could” be correct, he immediately turned around and said, “The last person Russia wants to see in office in Donald Trump is because no one is smarter. is about Russia more than I ever have. ”
When he recalled, “That’s not what intelligence says,” Trump retorted, “I do not care what anyone says,” and began arguing that policies like his focus on getting NATO countries to increase their contributions to the Western military alliance proving that he is worried about Russia and that Moscow does not want him in office.
“I do not care what anyone says” – Trump rejected the intelligence community’s announcement today that Russia is helping him again pic.twitter.com/dCHTbJctN6
– Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 8, 2020
Trump also dismissed mail-in voting as “the biggest risk we have,” and said he was concerned that foreign mediation could take place through post-in voting. But polling experts say there is a consensus that mail-in polls have historically been a reliable and secure way to vote, and that there is no evidence that they can be used to commit mass fraud if they do well. source.
While the election is still months away, millions of Americans have immediate worries about where they will live and how they will pay certainties now that the federal unemployment insurance and eviction protection established by the CARES Act have expired.
Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on extending those protections to weeks of negotiations, in part backed by the president making demands that were not supported by his party, such as a cut of tax rate was included in each future incentive package.
To fill the gap left by these programs, Trump promised – in vague terms – to use executive orders to place a host of sweeping measures, including expanded moratoriums on evictions and unemployment benefits. But he avoided questions about how he could legally overthrow Congress to do so.
Notably, the president pledged to promise the release of an executive order, prompting insurance companies to “cover all existing terms and conditions for all customers,” adding that “this has never been done before.”
This was misleading on at least two fronts. First, protections against coverage were denied on the basis of pre-existing conditions already signed into law under the Affordable Care Act during the Obama administration, and remain law. Second, Trump and the GOP have for years – without success – sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act without offering a realistic alternative plan, which effectively means the president has tried to protect people from protecting people for existing circumstances.
The conference concluded with a reporter questioning Trump’s claims that the pandemic was disappearing, and questioning the wisdom of allowing attending club members not to wear masks in light of the ongoing pandemic.
“You said the pandemic was going to go away, but we lost 6,000 Americans this week and just in this room you have dozens of people who do not follow the guidelines in New Jersey,” said a reporter, who asked angry of the crowd .
“You’re doing this wrong because it’s a political activity,” Trump said. “And it’s a peaceful protest, too.”
At the end of the conference, Trump placed the blame for the country’s crisis on a common enemy: The press itself. “If the press in this country was honest, it would not be corrupt, if it were not false, our country would be so much ahead, but we are doing it really great.”
