President Trump abruptly ended a tense press conference at the White House on Tuesday, after defending Dr. Stella Immanuel of Houston as “very impressive” for promoting hydroxychloroquine, just hours after Twitter deleted the President’s retweet from a video with Immanuel talking about the drug.
On Monday, Trump retweeted a viral video with several doctors, including Immanuel, which Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have since removed. In the video, Immanuel insists: “No one needs to get sick. … This virus has a cure. “She also says that no one needs to wear protective masks.
At the briefing, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins highlighted some of Immanuel’s previous comments, including that alien DNA is being used in medical treatments and that doctors want people to be immune to religion.
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“She was in the air, along with many other doctors. They were huge fans of hydroxychloroquine. I thought it was very impressive … She said she had had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients. I thought her voice was important voice, but I do not know anything about her “.
Collins continued to yell questions, prompting the President to leave.
CNN has its own history of questionable claims about hydroxychloroquine: Last week, Yale professor of epidemiology Dr. Harvey Risch rejected a CNN presenter’s “ridiculous” claim that the drug is too dangerous to consider. as a possible COVID-19 treatment.
Trump’s daily briefings in recent days have been noticeably shorter than they were earlier in the year, when the president spent nearly an hour each day entangled with journalists on various topics, debates that experts say may have been clouded his coronavirus message.
When questioned by a different journalist earlier in the briefing, Trump defended his earlier positions on hydroxychloroquine, saying he believes it “has an impact,” especially in the early stages of coronavirus infection.
In fact, researchers at the Henry Ford Health System in Southeast Michigan discovered earlier this month that early administration of the drug hydroxychloroquine makes hospitalized patients much less likely to die. The research is preliminary, and other studies have found different results.
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Trump claimed that the merits of the drug have been politicized. He noted that Twitter had withdrawn its Twitter post highlighting research into the virus. And, many media organizations relentlessly mocked the president for promoting the drug’s potential benefits earlier this year.
In a White House briefing on March 19, Trump had commented: “Now, a medication called chloroquine, and some people would add, hydroxychloroquine, then chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine … [has] it showed very encouraging, very encouraging results. “The President acknowledged that the drug may not” go as planned “and that more testing was needed, but that” we will be able to make that drug available almost immediately. “
Trump began the briefing by promoting his administration’s recent $ 765 million loan to the photography company Kodak under the Defense Production Act to finance the manufacturing of pharmaceutical ingredients. The measure aims to reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign countries to produce critical drugs.
“It’s a great name; it was one of the biggest brands in the world. Then people went digital and Kodak didn’t follow it. But now under very extraordinary leadership … they’re doing something that’s a different field, and it’s a They say they have really hired some of the best people in the world to take care of and watch over that company, “Trump said.
He noted that the contract was the 33rd use of the Defense Production Law administration, which allows the president to compel companies to produce certain equipment deemed vital to the national interest. “It is a breakthrough in bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States,” Trump said.
The President also emphasized that no American has been left without a fan due to a shortage of supplies, despite initial predictions during the coronavirus pandemic. He also highlighted his recent executive order aimed at reducing the prices of prescription drugs.
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On immigration, Trump said he was working on a program that would please supporters of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), while also taking steps to change the broader immigration system. Earlier in the day, management stopped new DACA applications as they considered the future of the program.
A recent Supreme Court decision that determined that the administration failed to comply with federal administrative law as to how DACA ended could end up empowering the White House to take a series of actions on immigration and health care, Trump said Tuesday.
“We are going to do DACA [people] happy, ”Trump said, noting that he would also seek a more” merit-based “immigration system similar to Canada’s.
Evie Fordham and Brian Flood of Fox Business Network contributed to this report.
