Fox News’ Kurtz Confronts Press Sec Grisham: We All Saw Clear ‘Shift’ in Trump’s Coronavirus Response

Fox News’ Howard Kurtz opened MediaBuzz Sunday by saying it’s pretty clear there was a “shift” in how seriously President Donald Trump has been taking coronavirus.

“President Trump has been taking a much tougher and far more aggressive stance against the coronavirus, and he told reporters he’s always taken the virus seriously,” Kurtz said.

But after showing Trump saying “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic,” Kurtz said, “A review of the president’s comments in January, February, and earlier this month suggest otherwise.”

He showed a montage of Trump saying things like “we have it under control” and “I’m not concerned at all.”

“The president is no longer soft-pedaling the magnitude of this crisis,” Kurtz said.

He then spoke with White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, who immediately tried to argue there was no “shift,” pointing to Trump’s early actions on China travel and saying he’s “acted appropriately as we have learned and had new developments about this virus.”

“But you know many programs have played clips similar to what I just did,” Kurtz said, “Many have written stories in which the president said things like ‘We have totally got it under control.’ So it does seem — you don’t have to take my word for it — it seems to many people, Stephanie, that earlier he was not where he is today in terms of the full scale mobilization.”

“The virus wasn’t where it was today at the beginning either. And I would also say I don’t know why the media has to continue to look backwards,” she started to say before Fox cut away for Governor Andrew Cuomo’s press conference. You’ve got to — Howard: All right. Let me pause you right there.

They cut back a few minutes later and Grisham again defended POTUS by saying, “The president didn’t have a crystal ball there, and he has acted appropriately. He has acted appropriately from the beginning.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.

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