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On Tuesday, Donald Trump appeared to be trying to continue a confrontation with a CBS News journalist that led to the president being accused of being racist toward Asian Americans.
He seemed to tweet in response to the incident involving Weijia Jiang on Monday night, Trump wrote without offering evidence: “Asian Americans are VERY angry about what China has done to our country and the world. Chinese Americans are the most angry of all. I do not blame them! “
At a briefing in the White House rose garden, Jiang asked the president why he continues to claim, wrongly, as he did again on Tuesday, that the United States is performing better than other countries in terms of coronavirus testing.
“Why does it matter?” asked the journalist, who was born in china and came to the United States at the age of two. “Why is it a global competition when, every day, Americans continue to lose their lives?”
“They are losing their lives in all parts of the world,” said Trump. “And maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me, ask China that question, okay?”
The president called another journalist, but she stopped when Jiang intervened, “Sir, why are you telling me that specifically?”
The President replied: “I am not telling anyone specifically. I tell anyone who asks an unpleasant question like that. “
The CBS reporter said, “That is not an unpleasant question.”
Trump then abruptly ended the briefing.
His comment was condemned as racist by some commentators.
Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California tweeted: “Asian Americans are Americans. Some of us serve on active duty in the United States Army. Some are on the front lines fighting this pandemic as paramedics and health workers. Some are reporters like [Jiang]. Stop dividing our nation. “
Trump has previously clashed with Jiang, and has been widely criticized for attacking reporters, women of color among them.
On Tuesday, CBS News said in a statement: “We fully support Weijia Jiang, the White House team, and all CBS News journalists. His work is critical to democracy and fosters understanding for the American public every day. “
The coronavirus outbreak originated in China’s Wuhan province. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, there have been around 4.3 million cases worldwide and 287,000 deaths.
More than 80,000 have died in the United States. But Trump is trying to reopen closed state economies, even as his top public health adviser warns that doing so “will only cause unnecessary suffering and death.”
The president and his administration have tried to blame China for the crisis, referring to the virus, known as Sars-CoV-2, as the Wuhan or Chinese virus.
Aides, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and supporters of the president, have also claimed without offering evidence that the virus originated in a Chinese government laboratory. World health experts believe that the virus is much more likely to have originated from bats and reach humans through consumption.
Civil rights groups have expressed concern about Trump’s comments about China and the virus and the effect it may have on public behavior towards minority groups.
In April, the deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Cecillia Wang, wrote that attempts to blame China “go against the advice of the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention] that such labels lead to dangerous scapegoats and widespread ignorance, just when accurate public health information is critically needed.
“By spreading this defamation, these officials have promoted racism and acts of harassment and violence against Asian Americans.”
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