Jonathan Karl Questions Trump About ‘Campaign Ad’ Played at Briefing: ‘Why Did You Feel the Need to Do That?’

ABC News White House reporter Jonathan Karl question President Donald Trump on a “campaign ad” style video the president played at the start of his daily briefing with the coronavirus task force.

The video — a super cut of cable news coverage of the coronavirus and governors praising his own response — was so wild it prompted CNN and MSNBC to cut away from the briefing, with the former network labelling it “propaganda.”

“Let me ask you about the video,” a perplexed Karl asked Trump. “I’ve never seen a video like that played in this room. It looks a bit like a campaign ad. Who produced that video for you?”

“That was done by a group in the office and it was done just — we just put some clips together. I could give you — I bet you I have over 100 more clips even better than them. They were pieced together over the last two hours.”

Trump, not sounding proud of his video, added it was put together by White House social media director Dan Scavino in “less than two hours.”

“We have far better than that,” the president said. “That was nothing compared to some that we have.”

“Why did you feel the need to do that?” Karl asked.

“Because we’re getting fake news and I like to have it corrected,” Trump replied. Much of his Monday briefing comments were a furious defense of his response to the crisis, following a devastating New York Times report published Saturday that detailed the failures of his administration.

As CBS News reporter Kathryn Watson pointed out, that means the “propaganda” video was paid for by the American taxpayer.

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