Reporter Confronts Trump Over ‘It is What it is’ Comment on Coronavirus Deaths: ‘What Message Does That Send?’

A reporter confronted President Donald Trump over the now-infamous remark from his interview with Jonathan Swan, in which he said of the mounting coronavirus death toll “It is what it is.”

Trump made the remarks during an Axios interview that was released Monday night.

During the interview, Trump told Swan “I think it’s under control,” to which Swan replied “How? 1,000 Americans are dying a day.”

“They are dying, that’s true. And it is what it is. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing everything we can. It’s under control as much as you can control it,” Trump replied.

On Thursday, Trump briefly gaggled with reporters as he left the White House, and one reporter pressed Trump about the ill-received comment.

“In an interview this week, you were talking about people dying of coronavirus, and you said ‘That’s true and it is what it is, You used the words ‘it is what it is,'” She said, and began to ask “Is that the message you…”

“If you look at the statement I made right after that, because if you look at…” Trump interrupted, and the reporter finished the sentence. saying “It is what it is, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing everything we can.”

“Yeah, and I said something after that too,” Trump said.

“What message does that send, though, to families…” the reporter began, before Trump launched into his response:

So the message that I have is very simple. Nobody can do what I’ve done in terms of all of the things that we’re doing to combat this horrible disease that never should have been sent to us, that was sent, it came from China, should never have been allowed to leave China, they could have easily done something, they stopped it from coming into China, but they didn’t stop it from coming into the U.S. and Europe and the rest of the world. And China should have done something about it. And frankly it’s a disgrace that they didn’t.

Watch the clip above via C-Span.