FNC’s Wallace: Trump Coronavirus Presser ‘Clearly Didn’t’ Ease Concerns — ‘The Next Day The Markets Fell’

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace argued Friday on “America’s Newsroom” that President Donald Trump’s coronavirus press conference “clearly didn’t” ease concerns.

He cited the drop in the stock market as proof.

Wallace said, “The idea that HHS workers were sent to deal with people who had been evacuated from China who were in quarantine and they didn’t have the proper equipment or training and then as Jonathan Hunt suggested made things even worse because they then left the quarantined area and went into the general public. That is the real key. Obviously, there is a lot of legitimate concerns here on the part of the American people. There is also some panic going on that seems like unfounded concerns. But the administration has got to give a sense that they’re on top of this and ahead of it and flooding the zone that they’re doing everything possible. When you get a story like this that HHS wasn’t even protecting its own workers allegedly. We’ll see whether or not it’s true. it gives a sense they’re playing catch-up.”

He continued, “One of the questions here is public confidence, and clearly the president wanted to hold that press conference on Wednesday with the array of health officials from CDC and HHS and the whole government alphabet, if you will, of agencies to ease people’s concerns. Clearly, it didn’t do that, because the next day the markets fell, what, 1200 points, the biggest single-day drop in the history of the Dow Jones. Today it’s down what, another 973, you know we’re going to be down several thousand points this week. So it hasn’t eased people’s concerns. Again, part of it is panic and part of it is also a concern, I think, that early on you did see this kind of mixed messaging where the president seemed to be more optimistic about how the U.S. was handling the coronavirus, the fact that it was going to be over soon, that was going to end once the weather got warmer, and somewhat more serious warnings from some of the health officials.”

He added, “That is really the key, I think, nobody can wave a magic wand and make it go away, but people have to have a sense that the administration is doing all that can in the public health sense, and that politics is not a factor, cause it shouldn’t be a factor either on the part of Republicans or Democrats.”

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