Acosta and McEnany Clash Over Trump Downplaying Covid: ‘At 200,000 Deaths, Shouldn’t The President Be Telling The Truth?’

CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta asked Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany to explain some controversial comments made by President Donald Trump Monday night during a political rally in Ohio that the coronavirus — which has killed 200,000 Americans and infected nearly 7 million — “affects virtually nobody.”

“It affects elderly people, elderly people with heart problems, and other problems. If they have other problems, that’s what it really affects, that’s it,” Trump said. “You know, in some states thousands of people, nobody young. Below the age of 18, like nobody. They have a strong immune system. Who knows? Take your hat off to the young, because they have a hell of an immune system.”

Acosta cited this before noting that Trump has also asked schools to be opened and said to Bob Woodward, “it’s not just older people it’s young people, too,” before asking, “At 200,000 deaths, shouldn’t the president be telling people the truth about this virus at his rallies?”

McEnany immediately shot back, “The President is telling people the truth!” to which Acosta pushed further, saying, “no, he isn’t. He’s saying it ‘affects virtually nobody,’ and it doesn’t affect young people. He is not telling the truth.”

“You are taking the president out of context,” McEnany stated before clarifying that President Trump “was referring to young people.”

“I’m not taking it out of context. If I said he was talking about younger people, then I’m not taking it out of context,” Acosta pressed.

“You are taking it out of context because you are making an assertion that he is saying he is not giving critical information when, in fact, he is,” McEnany replied. “He said this ‘You know in some states thousands of people — and they have had nobody young, below the age of 18, like nobody, they have a strong immune system,'” McEnany explained before citing the American Pediatric Association to support President Trump’s claim.

But Acosta wasn’t satisfied and seemed to get the last useful word saying, “For the president with 200,000 deaths to go to the rally and say it virtually affects nobody and that in some states it’s not affecting young people, that is glossing over the fact—and really diminishing the fact—that young people can catch this virus and spread it to older people. Younger people can also be sickened and killed by the virus.”

“It is not a disease that affects young people in the same way as older people,” McEnany added, “which is the exact point the president was making last night.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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