Be Nice (or begone)

Again, since many can’t read WaPo (I subscribe) here’s an article that’s sort of a follow up to Trump’s characterization of Nancy Pelosi as a “Sick Puppy”. Her sin? Simply echoing the statements of the vast multitude of public health officials (you know, like medical doctors?), that the Trump administration, as, of course, dictatorially governed by Trump, himself (my words not hers) waited too long to take aggressive action on the current Corona virus endemic. This is an absolutely incontrovertible statement yet…!  

So yesterday, between semi-fawning softball questions regarding his “ratings” from A One America News Channel (think Fox, only worse) reporter, Trump called on PBS NewsHour reporter Yamiche Alcindor.

“

Mr. President, I have two questions,” she said. “The first is you’ve said repeatedly that you think that some of the equipment that governors are requesting they don’t actually need. You said New York might not need 30,000 …”

Trump didn’t let her finish. “I didn’t say that,” he said. “You said it on Sean Hannity’s Fox News,” Alcindor responded, accurately.”

(ed:)Yes, he absolutely did say that. Here’s the quote from the on-air transcript: “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be,” he said. “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now, all of a sudden, they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’”

WaPo: So, Trump, after cutting her off in mid question said:

“Come on, come on. Why don’t you people — why don’t you act in a little more positive? It’s always ‘get ya, get ya, get ya.’ And you know what? That’s why nobody trusts the media anymore.”

(ed) So, asking the President what he meant when he said something on Fox News makes the reporter and, by extension, all media, “un trustworthy?”

WaPo: Alcindor, who is a black woman, tried to finish her question, but Trump interrupted again: “Look, let me tell you something. Be nice. Don’t be threatening. Be nice.”

(ed) Understand the context here. In Trump world, asking a legitimate question, if it also questions anything Trump did, will do, or has done, is “threatening?”  The term paranoid comes to mind, followed by narcissistic.

(WaPo again) Trump’s reaction to Alcindor’s question recalled past incidents in which the president has cast black female reporters as “stupid,” “a loser” and “racist.”

On March 13, when Alcindor asked whether the suspension of the White House pandemic office slowed the country’s response to the coronavirus, Trump called it a “nasty question.”  He got personal again Sunday with Alcindor, making what he seemed to consider disparaging comments about her career. “Excuse me,” said the president at one point, “you didn’t hear me, that’s why you used to work for The Times and now you work for somebody else,” a reference to the New York Times and PBS NewsHour. The president didn’t call on Alcindor to ask a second question, even though she had told him she had a follow-up.

But a few minutes later, in a display of professional support, CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond handed the microphone back to the NewsHour journalist so she could ask Trump which public health experts supported his claims that more people would die from the economic impact of social distancing than from coronavirus infections. Trump didn’t (and probably couldn’t) give any names. (End of article)

This is simply puerile and sickening behavior from any chief of state. The fact that anyone believes this man any longer is frightening.