President Donald Trump on Friday baselessly accused CNN and NBC News of being puppets for the Chinese government who are “going out of their way to say GREAT things about China” with their coverage of the pandemic. It didn’t go well.
“The Enemy of the People!” he tweeted.
“Concast (@NBCNews) and Fake News @CNN are going out of their way to say GREAT things about China. They are Chinese puppets who want to do business there. They use USA airwaves to help China. The Enemy of the People!” he wrote.
In response, CNN anchor Jake Tapper acknowledged that the Chinese government had been “deceptive” about the coronavirus outbreak “from the beginning.”
He then used Trump’s past praise of China’s handling of the coronavirus crisis was used against him.
Tapper took “a little trip” through what Trump had said about the Chinese government during the earlier stages of the outbreak, when the president repeatedly downplayed the risk of the virus and reportedly failed to act on multiple warnings about how it could spread worldwide.
Take a look:
Concast (@NBCNews) and Fake News @CNN are going out of their way to say GREAT things about China. They are Chinese puppets who want to do business there. They use USA airwaves to help China. The Enemy of the People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 1, 2020
Jan 24: President Trump said "China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus." He said the US "appreciates their efforts and transparency" and he thanked President Xi on behalf of the American people. 2/https://t.co/F3ld36XNAW
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 1, 2020
Jan 24: President Trump said "China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus." He said the US "appreciates their efforts and transparency" and he thanked President Xi on behalf of the American people. 2/https://t.co/F3ld36XNAW
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 1, 2020
5/ That same day the president said the Chinese government was "doing a very professional job…. I think they're doing a very good job" fighting the virus.https://t.co/qX9h8eD6eh
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 1, 2020
7/ On Feb 10, the president told Fox Business that China is very 'professionally run in the sense that they have everything under control…You know in April, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather…China I can tell you is working very hard."https://t.co/hsT9VE3vLl
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 1, 2020
8/Ad infinitum
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 1, 2020
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