Trump berates female reporter at daily coronavirus briefing
Story highlights
On Sunday, it so happened that CBS reporter Weijia Jiang asked Trump why he continued to hold rallies throughout February despite the threat of the looming pandemic.
United States President Donald Trump lashed out at a female reporter, asking her to keep her voice down during a coronavirus press briefing.
On Sunday, it so happened that CBS reporter Weijia Jiang asked Trump why he continued to hold rallies throughout February despite the threat of the looming pandemic, and why he failed to enact social distancing until mid-March. To this end, the US president first demanded to know who she worked for.
“Who are you with, who are you with … yeah, who are you with?” Trump said, before suggesting his Chinese travel ban in late January was evidence he was on top of the crisis.
The US implemented its ban on travel from China on February 2.
When Jiang pointed out the ban only applied to Chinese nationals, and not Americans who may have returned with the virus, Trump interrupted, and said, "Nice and easy, nice and easy, just relax. We cut it off, people were amazed … everybody was amazed that I did it."
Trump also accused Jiang of failing to do her research.
“How many cases of virus were in the United States when I issued the ban? Do you know the number?” he said, adding, “No no, you have to do your research,” when she did not answer.
“Keep your voice down please, keep your voice down,” Trump continued when Jiang attempted to reply.
He then claimed there were no confirmed deaths from coronavirus in the US before the ban, telling Jiang to say -- 'Thank you very much for good judgement’.
Coronavirus has so far claimed 42,904 lives in the US, while the total number of cases has surpassed 7,80,000.