United States President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, DC on July 20, 2020.
Jim Watson | AFP | fake pictures
President Donald Trump said he will resume holding press conferences on coronavirus at the White House, likely starting Tuesday, as a sharp increase in cases across the country coincides with a decrease in his number of surveys.
Trump, speaking in the Oval Office, told reporters Monday that “we have had this great crisis in Florida, Texas, in a couple of other places,” while maintaining that “much of the country is doing well” in its fight. against The pandemic.
“And I think what we’re going to do is get involved and start doing briefings, whether it’s this afternoon or tomorrow, probably tomorrow, and I’m going to do briefings,” Trump said.
The decision to restart the briefings followed internal polls showing the White House that the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic and its messages had been unsuccessful, NBC News reported, citing a senior administration official.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany appeared to confirm to Fox News later Monday that the next briefing was scheduled for 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
She said the goal of the briefings is “to reassure the American people that we are in one place, where we see these cases increase as the evidence increases, in particular, but we are in a place where we are treating people in a better fashion due to the therapeutics developed under this president. “
The briefings of the coronavirus working group, once they occurred almost daily, had been largely discounted for almost three months. While the task force is chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, the briefings were dominated by Trump, who often engaged in lengthy and combative exchanges with journalists.
In one of his last meeting room appearances, Trump speculated whether ingesting disinfectants could work as a treatment for Covid-19, a moment that generated fierce criticism from public health experts.
In June, members of the working group held their first public session since the end of April. Trump was not present.
Trump’s overall approval ratings had risen in the early months of the crisis, when working group briefings were held regularly, according to the FiveThirtyEight survey tracker. But by April, the president’s approval had begun to decline, the tracker shows.
It has followed a downward trend in the following months as several states struggle with record spikes in cases. With less than four months to go until the 2020 election, presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden has a considerable and consistent lead over Trump, the RealClearPolitics poll average shows.
As the election draws near, Trump announced a campaign shake up last week, touching Bill Stepien to replace Brad Parscale as campaign manager. The move came weeks after the Trump campaign’s initial rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was embroiled in controversy and produced disappointing turnout. Cases in the city were on the rise before Trump arrived, and health experts later said an increase in cases was likely related to the rally.
The protests, a defining feature of Trump’s 2016 winning presidential nomination, had not been held for months amid the health crisis, depriving the president of one of the key weapons in his campaign arsenal. In the absence of those large-scale in-person events, Trump has used his platforms in the Rose Garden and elsewhere to launch attacks on Biden and his other political opponents.
Members of the task force, especially Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, have faced criticism from the White House itself as they continue to speak publicly about the virus.
Trump, in a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday, said Fauci is “a bit of an alarmist,” adding: “I have a great relationship with him.”
In that interview, Trump also rejected comments from Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and another member of the task force, who said that if “everyone” wore masks, the virus could be low control in a matter of weeks
“I do not agree with the statement that if everyone wears a mask, everything disappears,” Trump told Fox.
Trump said Monday that the United States is now in a much better place regarding vaccines and therapeutics than at the time the briefings were interrupted, when “we were nowhere.”
“I think it is a great way to disseminate information to the public about where the vaccines are, the therapies, and generally where we are,” he said.
Trump added that White House press briefings, led by the press secretary, would continue.
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