President Donald Trump abruptly ended his press conference on Tuesday when CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins pressured him about his promotion of a quack’s dangerous claims about COVID-19.
On Monday night, Trump shared a video of the doctor who falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine is a “cure” for COVID-19 and that he avoided the need to wear masks or take other mitigation measures during the pandemic. Some of his claims were clearly wrong: It is important to reduce the risk of contracting diseases even if we have a cure for them, and leading experts argue that the evidence continues to give little indication that hydroxychloroquine is effective against the virus. The video Trump shared was so dangerously wrong that social media platforms began to delete it.
Later reports revealed that the doctor in the video is quackery: She previously promoted claims about alien DNA and demonic sperm.
“The woman you said is a ‘great doctor’ in that video she retweeted last night said the masks don’t work and that there is a cure for COVID-19, which experts say is not true,” Collins told Trump during the afternoon briefing. “He also made videos that say doctors make drugs using DNA from aliens and that they are trying to make a vaccine so that you are immune to becoming religious. So what’s the logic for retweeting that?”
Trump shook his head and looked down.
“I can tell you this,” he said. “She was on the air with many other doctors. They were huge fans of hydroxychloroquine. And I thought it was very impressive in the sense that where it came from, I don’t know what country it came from, but she said she had had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients. And I thought her voice was an important voice, but I don’t know anything about her. “
Trump tried to pass another journalist, but Collins had a follow-up. When she tried to interrupt, he clearly was upset. She decided to forgo receiving a question from another journalist, she just said, “Thank you all very much,” and quickly left the room.
Check out the exchange below:
