CNN’s Acosta: ‘Stunning’ Trump Played ‘Campaign-Style Video’ in Briefing Room

Monday on CNN’s “Situation Room,” network White House correspondent Jim Acosta decried the “stunning” video played at the coronavirus press conference by President Donald Trump, deeming it a “campaign-style video.”

Acosta said, “We have been reporting all day that the president is fretting over Dr. Fauci’s comments in the news media. This is obviously a symptom of that. What we saw a few moments ago— it’s good we cut away from that— is the White House essentially tried to plate a campaign-style video in the White House briefing room defending the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.”

He continued, “These briefings have been compared to rallies because of the way the president plays loose and fast with facts. That is another way you can compare these briefings to a rally. That is the kind of video you would expect to see at one of his rallies at any arena or venue across the country.”

He continued, “Another thing we should point out, the president is defending himself and putting Dr. Fauci out there to defend him over these comments he made on CNN’s “State of the Union,” where he said if we had put these measures into play sooner, there would be less deaths. The president over the last couple of months repeatedly, time and again almost on a daily basis downplayed the severity of the coronavirus outbreak. He said it was going to go away — that it would miraculously disappear. That in April, when things got warmer, it would go away. That he had things under control, the administration had things under control. All of those things are false, and another criticism could be made that while he was making the comments, parts of the country were not taking this as serious as they should have.”

Blitzer said, “This is the White House briefing room. It’s not a campaign rally at some huge auditorium or stadium. It’s the White House, the government, and we are seeing these political statements, very partisan, very angry political statements.”

Acosta said, “It’s stunning.”

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