While the Singapore authorities have been carefully easing restrictions and even carefully wording every of their responses during any press conference, it’s not the same in the US.
Previously, President Trump had gone up to the podium to give a daily briefing about the coronavirus in the White House, together with the task force that was formed to fight the virus.
After a hoo-ha about drinking disinfectants which you can read all about here, he stopped the daily briefing and instead let his new press secretary, former Trump hater and now Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany, lead the show.
The 32-year-old has been impressive so far, tackling impromptu questions like she’s prepared the answers 10 years ago, and dodging questions like she’s not dodging them.
But on Monday (our Tuesday), Trump decided to take the stage again, this time outdoors because why not.
Lest you’re not aware, Trump’s always been boasting about the number of COVID-19 tests the US has been conducting: ask him what he had for lunch and he’d probably tell you that the US has done more tests than many countries combined.
And honestly, Ms McEnany should have been the one who’s there, because on the day that Trump went back to face reporters, he didn’t have a good day.
You can watch the entire press briefing here:
Not much new info there, and most would fall asleep 30 minutes in, but a drama unfolded an hour later.
CBS’s Weijia Jiang, a White House correspondent who was born in China and immigrated to the US with her parents when she was two years old, posed a question that might not warrant an answer but have surely triggered Trump.
She said, “Many times, you’ve said that the US is doing far better than countries when it comes to testing.”
Trump immediately said, “Yes.”
Ms Jiang then asked, “Why does that matter? Why is this a global competition to you if every day Americans are still losing their lives and we’re still seeing more cases every day?”
“Well, they’re losing their lives everywhere in the world. And maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me. Ask China that question. OK? When you ask them that question, you may get a very unusual answer.” He then pointed to another person. “Yes, behind you, please.”
Ms Jiang leaned back on her seat, but even through her eyes, you can tell that she wasn’t happy.
After a brief silence, she almost stood up but went back to her seat, saying, “Sir, why are you saying that to me? Specifically? That I should ask China?”
Trump responded, “I’m not saying it specifically to anybody. I’m saying it to anybody that would ask a nasty question like that.”
Ms Jiang continued to retort but her voice started to break off as the mic seemed to have been moved to another person: “That’s not a nasty question. Why does it matter? When I…”
Trump then just ignored her and said, “Okay, anybody else? Please go ahead in the back, please.”
The poor lady who had been pointed earlier wanted to ask two questions, but Trump said that because she didn’t ask any questions (she was blocked off by Ms Jiang), Trump wanted to let another person pose a question.
Follow us on Telegram for more informative & easy-to-read articles, or download the Goody Feed app for articles you can’t find on Facebook!
That lady reporter, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, continued with her question and that was when Trump just said, “Ok, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much, appreciate it.”
In other words, he cut short the Q&A and left immediately.
Just so you know, Trump isn’t a fan of CNN and CBS, or any news outlet, and has been calling all of them fake news repeatedly. To him, the only real news is from his Tweets.
And CNN and CBS are considered the same company since they have the same parent company, ViacomCBS.
White House Correspondents: People Who Work in the White House
Over in the US, a group of reporters from various news outlets work within the White House with their own office, as they’re responsible for reporting about the federal government.
In fact, these reporters, who are referred to as White House Correspondents and are usually experienced journalists, would travel with the President—sometimes even on Air Force One.
In other words, the President would have known them quite well since the pool of the correspondents have remained unchanged in every media briefing.
The two correspondents hadn’t had a good history with the Trump, though.
Back in February, Ms Jiang, who appears to be new then, got viral she got into an argument with Trump:
As for Kaitlan Collins, Trump told her “not to talk to me” in late April because she’s from CNN.
That didn’t end; on the next day, Ms Collins was told to move to the back of the room and when she refused, she was told that the President’s security force, the Secret Service, would be “involved”.
So yes, while it all seems like a racist comment out of the blue, it isn’t: there’s been bad blood between these people for a long, long time le.
Aren’t you glad that we don’t have this kind of drama here in Singapore?
To stay in the loop about news in Singapore, you might want to subscribe to our YouTube channel whereby we’d update you about what’s happening here daily:
Would you be jailed for being half-naked in public? Well, the answer will shock you. Seriously. Watch this to the end and you'll understand:
