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In a stunning move, President Donald Trump hijacked the daily coronavirus press briefing to offer a surreal and prolonged attack on the media — including a White House-produced clip job — to push back on extensive reporting about the administration’s missteps and mixed messages during the first few months of the outbreak.

The president was clearly set off by a blockbuster New York Times report from Saturday that included stunning details about the administration’s belated and chaotic response to COVID-19.

After calling the Times a “total fake,” Trump teed up a video package that compiled clips of reporting and media figures downplaying the virus’ threat, which began with a full screen title saying: ‘The Media Minimized the Risk from the Start.” It included a lengthy audio quote from Times White House correspondent, Maggie Haberman — whose byline was on the paper’s massive exposé from this past weekend  — calling Trump’s commercial travel ban from China “probably effective.”

The video also showed self-congratulatory snippets from “bipartisan governors” praising Trump, leaving out many other examples where governors and public officials expressed frustration at the federal government’s inability to set up testing or provide necessary protective equipment to public health workers.

“So we could give you hundreds of clips like that from governors,” the president said, at the conclusion of the bizarre, anti-media hit that could have doubled as a Trump re-

election campaign ad. “We can give you hundreds of clips just like that. We have them. We didn’t want this to go on too long, but I just want to say it’s very sad when people write false stories, like in that case I guess it was mostly from the New York Times which is a highly — I mean, if you had libel laws, they would have been out of business even before they will end up going out of business. It’s too bad.”

Watch the video above, via Fox News. 

 

Tags: 2020 Campaign, Coronavirus, Donald Trump, media coverage, Trump 2020 campaign