CNN’s John Berman Slams Trump’s Empty Schedule Amid Covid Surge: ‘He’s Not A Wartime President, He’s A Tee-time President’

CNN’s John Berman noted the two weeks of nearly empty White House schedules by saying that while President Donald Trump likes to call himself “a wartime president,” but that he’s actually “a tee-time president.”

Berman hit that theme a couple of times on Thursday morning’s edition of New Day, first when contributor Errol Lewis set him up by reminding viewers of Trump’s previous self-identification as a “wartime president” in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

“He’s not a wartime president, he’s a tee-time president,” Berman said, then explained “As in golf tee. He’s spent more time golfing than speaking in public about the pandemic that’s now killed 250,000 people. 12 out of the last 16 days, he’s had nothing on his public schedule. Nothing.”

The next hour, he brought up Trump’s affinity for golfing during the raging Covid tsunami while speaking with CNN White House correspondent Abby Phillip.

“It would be one thing, with the country suffering so much, if the president wasn’t cooperating with Joe Biden because he was so damn busy fighting this pandemic. So busy making public statements about what he is doing to make things better,” Berman said, mockingly. “But he’s not doing anything. I mean we threw up that graphic of the president’s public schedule. 12 out of the last 16 days, no public events.”

“You’ve covered the White House, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Berman told Phillip. “I mean this doesn’t happen with presidents ever, let alone when there’s something major going on. As I said last hour, the president likes to say he’s a wartime president, he’s a tee time president. He’s spending more time golfing than publicly fighting the pandemic. I mean how can you justify that?”

“Yeah it’s particularly odd because this president actually really likes to personally be the one out there shaping the narrative,” Phillip said. “He’s not even showing up on his favorite television shows to defend his false claims about this election.”

She went on to add that “this is a sign that this is a president, as White House sources have termed it, is in a bunker mentality. He wants to stay in the residence, in the Oval Office, and tweet about his grievances and lie about this election, but I think the more important thing is that the work of the government seems to not be being done. I mean there’s a huge crisis going on with Covid and the president is MIA on that.”

Watch above via CNN.