CBS White House reporter Weijia Jiang argued, lectured and repeatedly interrupted President Trump at Sunday’s White House coronavirus task force briefing during an over two-minute back and forth about Jiang’s accusation that Trump failed to warn Americans about the virus durung the month of February. Jiang falsely claimed the COVID-19 Chinese coronavirus was “spreading like wildfire” in the country in February.
A check shows there 15 cases in the U.S. on February 15 and 60 cases on February 27. Only 20 cases as of March 1 were by domestic spread. The rest were from those repatriated and Diamond Princess passengers. The virus was not spreading like wildfire in February. During February leading Democrats like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (CA) were encouraging people to stop being racists and visit Chinatown and dine at Chinese restaurants.
Jiang argued with and corrected Trump throughout. Toward the end a fed up Trump told her to “keep your voice down” and demanded of her how many Americans had died from the virus at the time he issued the China travel ban at the end of January. She could not answer when Trump turned the tables on her and repeatedly demanded an answer from her. Trump asked Jiang about eight times how many cases and how many deaths and she could not answer. There seven cases of domestic spread on January 31 when Trump issued the China travel ban. The first death was reported on February 29.
Far-left partisan CBS reporter Weijia Jiang again tried to fight with @realDonaldTrump, reminding us she's not an objective reporter. But Trump wasn't having any of it, calling her out after she started to yell at him. Did she come to debate and push a talking point? Yup.
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Jiang, whose Twitter bio says she is a “Chinese born West Virginian”, recently caused controversy by accusing without proof an unnamed White House staffer of using the joke phrase “Kung Flu” in a conversation with her about the coronavirus.
Transcript by TGP:
Jiang: “Since you shared with us something else that you saw on TV today. I have a question about something you said on Thursday which is that you were angry because “information about the virus should have been told to us earlier and alot sooner. People knew it was happening and people did not want to talk about it”. Many Americans are saying the exact same thing about you, that you should have warned them the virus was spreading like wildfire through the month of February instead of holding rallies with thousands of people. Why did you wait so long to warn them?”
Trump: “Who are you with? Who are you with”
Jiang: “And why did you uh, not have social distancing until March 16th?”
Trump: “Who are you with?”
Jiang: “I’m Weijia Jiang with CBS News.”
Trump: “So, if you look at what I did in terms of cutting off, or banning China from coming in…”
Jiang (interrupting): “Chinese nationals. But by the way not Americans who are also from China.”
Trump: “Nice and easy. Nice and easy. Just relax. We cut it off. People were amazed. These gentlemen, everybody was amazed that I did it. We had twenty-one people in the room, everybody was against it but me. Dr. Fauci said had I not done that, perhaps tens of thousands and maybe much more than that, people would have died. I was very early. Very, very early. And we just saw, you saw Bret Baier making a statement. They had a debate well into February and not even mentioned, it wasn’t even mentioned, the Democrats…”
Jiang (interrupting): “You’re the President…”
Trump: “…We were very early. Oh, I, I’m the President, and you know what I just did?”
Jiang (interrupting): “…You should have warned people it was spreading so quickly. And by the way, when you issued the ban, the virus was already here.”
Trump: “Okay and you know how many people when I issued the ban? How many cases of virus were in the United States when I issued the ban? Do you know the number?
Jiang: “There was…”
Trump: “No, no. How many cases? Remember I said one person. How many cases were here when I issued the ban?”
Jiang: “But did you know (cross talk) threat from a pandemic”
Trump: “No, no no. You have to do your research. How many…”
Jiang: “I did my research. On the 23rd of March you said you knew this going to be a pandemic well before…”
Trump: “Can I tell you what? I did know it. I did know it. All I had to do was look, but all…
Jiang (interrupting): “So you knew…”
Trump: “Anybody knew it. Just, are you ready? How many cases were in the United States when I did my ban? How many people had died in the United States?”
Jiang: “So do you acknowledge that you didn’t think it was going to spread?”
Trump: “Keep your voice down, please. Keep your voice down.”
Jiang (interrupting): “Did you not think it was going to spread?”
Trump: “How many, how many, how many cases were in the United States? I did a ban where I’m closing up the entire country. How many people died?”
Jiang: “And that’s a fair point.”
Trump: “How many people died in the United States? And yet I closed up the country and I believe there were no deaths, zero deaths at the time I closed up the country. Nobody was there. And you should say thank you very much for good judgment.”
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