President Donald Trump blasted partisan CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang during the White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing on Friday for trying to ask a “gotcha question.”
“Yesterday, Jared Kushner said, ‘the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile, it’s not supposed to be state’s stockpiles that they then use,’” Jiang said. “What did he mean by ‘our’ given the fact that taxpayers from every state pays for it?”
“Oh, why are you asking? What’s that, a gotcha, I gotcha, you used the word ‘our,’” Trump fired back. “You know what ‘our’ means? United States of America, that’s what it means. It means United States of America, and then we take that ‘our’ and we distribute it to the states.”
“He’s talking about the federal government,” Trump continued. “I mean, it’s such a basic, simple question, and you try to make it sound so bad. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, you know what, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. It’s such a simple question. He said, ‘our,’ and ‘our’ means for the country, and ‘our’ means for the states because the states are a part of the country. Don’t make it sound bad.”
After Trump finished answering her question, Jiang continued to rudely interrupt the press conference as the president tried to call on another reporter.
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He handled this very well. pic.twitter.com/85zA1dcYGB
— David Reaboi (@davereaboi) April 3, 2020
Last month, Jiang, who is a self-described “Chinese born West Virginian,” created drama when she tweeted, “This morning a White House official referred to #Coronavirus as the ‘Kung-Flu’ to my face. Makes me wonder what they’re calling it behind my back.”
Jiang provided no evidence to substantiate her claim and refused to name the person who allegedly said it to her.
Senior White House Adviser Kellyanne Conway pressed Jiang on the matter the following day on camera, and Jiang dodged answering Conway’s questions.
Kellyanne Conway on the rumor that a White House Official called Coronavirus, ‘Kung Flu’: “Tell us all who it is.” pic.twitter.com/wJth3RAlZM
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) March 18, 2020
In mid-March, Jiang repeatedly acted hostile toward Trump over coronavirus testing during a separate White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing, suggesting that Trump needed to quarantine himself.
Here’s the transcript of the interaction (video below):
Q Mr. President, thank you. I want to first follow up on Jeff’s question, because the person you were standing next to, whether you know who he is or not, tested positive for coronavirus. Dr. Fauci said this morning, “If you stand next to somebody who tested positive, you should self-isolate and get a test.” You say your White House doctor is telling you something different. Who should Americans listen to?
And my second question is —
THE PRESIDENT: I think they have to listen to their doctors, and I think they shouldn’t be jumping to get the test unless it’s necessary. But I think they have to listen to their doctors. And I mean, I don’t know the — I haven’t seen the picture. Somebody said there’s a picture with somebody taking a picture with me, but I haven’t seen it. But I can tell you —
JIANG: Well, doctors have said you might have it even if you don’t have symptoms.
THE PRESIDENT: Well —
JIANG: Are you being selfish by not getting tested and potentially exposing —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I didn’t say I wasn’t going to be tested.
JIANG: Are you going to be?
THE PRESIDENT: Most likely, yeah. Most likely.
JIANG: When do you think that will happen?
THE PRESIDENT: Not for that reason, but because I think I will do it any way. Fairly soon.
JIANG: Will you let us know the results?
THE PRESIDENT: We’re working on that. We’re working out a schedule.
JIANG: My second question, Mr. President —
THE PRESIDENT: You go ahead, please.
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