Friday CNN anchor John King used profanity to criticize President Donald Trump’s attack on NBC News’ Peter Alexander at the coronavirus press briefing.
King played a clip of the news conference where Alexander asked, “What do you say to Americans who are scared, 14,000 who are sick, and what do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?”
Trump answered, “I would say you are a terrible reporter. I think it is a nasty question. I think it is a very bad signal that you are putting out to American people. The American people are looking for answers and hope. You are doing sensationalism and the same with NBC and Comcast. I don’t call them Comcast. I call it Con-cast. That’s really bad reporting. You want to get back to reporting. Let’s see if it works. It may not. I happen to feel good about it, but who knows. I have been right a lot. Let’s see what happens.”
King said, “I sat in that room for just shy of 10 years, it was a perfectly valid question,” adding “What the president did to Peter Alexander is reprehensible. The American people are looking for answers. They do want hope. They do want support, Mr. President. That was a very fair question.”
He continued, “This is a Trump trademark, it was striking that this came, this, forgive me, bullshit attack on fake news came just moments after the Secretary of State said the American people needed to be careful about where they get their information, and go to sources they can trust. I get there, at times, disagreements. There are times contention between politicians and reporters. That was a 100% legitimate question with no hype, no shade, no bias. He just wanted to attack.”
CNN White House reporter Kaitlan Collins said, “Yeah, and we’re living in a pandemic, and people have questions, and they want to hear messages from the president of the United States.”
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