- President Donald Trump held a news conference at his golf club in New Jersey on Friday, where members of the club were invited to review his interaction with members of the media.
- Before the briefing, the president was caught on a hot mic inviting club members to “see what I have to go through”, and White House reporters called “all my killers”, according to Jim Acosta of CNN.
- The president has taken issue with media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it a “hoax” and sometimes suggesting it was not good enough for his administration.
- “You will meet the false news tonight,” the president said Friday.
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
President Donald Trump was caught on a hot mic prior to his press conference on Friday, inviting members to his Florida country club to watch his upcoming newsletter, and reporters calling his “killers,” a CNN reporter said.
“You will meet the false news tonight,” the president said, according to a tweet from CNN Chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta, who was present at the New Jersey briefing. “You’ll see what I have to go through.”
“Who’s there?” Trump added, according to Acosta. “Oh, all my killers are there, wow. You’ll see some of the people we deal with every day.”
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider on Saturday.
As Business Insider previously reported, the president held a news conference on Friday about the coronavirus pandemic at his golf club in New Jersey to reporters and a non-social crowd of supporters. Photos shared by reporters had shown many maskless members among the public, although a reporter at the golf club later said the visitors were provided masks before the news conference began.
—Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 8, 2020
The public even took part in the press release. Remarkably, when a reporter asked the president about the lack of masks or social distance from the crowd prior to the event, participants standing behind members of the press began to bow to the reporter.
The president told the journalist that those present who were at the club without a mask participated in a “peaceful protest”, as Business Insider reported.
“No, they just don’t – it’s political activity,” he said. “You are doing this wrong because they have exceptions to political activity, and it is also a peaceful protest.”
Throughout the administration, the president has problems with the coverage of the news media about his administration, and he often uses the term “fake news” to discredit journalists, as the BBC noted.
In particular, the president has taken issue with media coverage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has so far killed at least 161,456 Americans, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally Saturday, lamenting that it has not been favorable enough and with reference to the part of a “hoax.”
“We are doing very well,” Trump said Friday. “You don’t hear that too often from the media. We have a very large country, a very complex country in a sense.”
