Mulvaney Outlandishly Accuses Media Of Covering Coronavirus Threat To Hurt Trump

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD - FEBRUARY 28: Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has a conversation with Stephen Moore (not pictured), Distinguished Visiting Fellow for Project for Economic Growth at The Heritage Foundation, on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2020 (CPAC) hosted by the American Conservative Union on February 28, 2020 in National Harbor, MD. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Mick Mulvaney
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has a conversation on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2020 (CPAC) on February 28, 2020 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney on Friday made the ridiculous claim that the media was trying to damage President Donald Trump politically with its coverage of the deadly coronavirus.

During a Q&A at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Mulvaney claimed the media was inflating the disease because its coverage of the impeachment “hoax” failed to sabotage Trump.

“The reason you’re seeing so much attention to it today is that they think this is what’s going to bring down the President,” the White House official told the CPAC audience. “That’s what this is all about.”

“I got a note today from a reporter saying ‘What are you going to do today to calm the markets?’” he continued. “I’m like, ‘Really what I might do to calm the markets is tell people to turn their televisions off for 24 hours.”

Mulvaney also downplayed the severity of the deadly virus by arguing that while the illness “absolutely is real,” its death rate doesn’t compare to that of the Ebola virus.

“When you look at the severity of diseases, one of the ways you can look at it is by looking at the percentage of people who get it who die,” he told the audience. “I know that’s sort of hard-hearted, but that’s how we look at certain-that’s probably how you would look at it. If I get a cold, am I gonna die? No? Okay.”

On Tuesday, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow tried to make a similar point about the virus’ fatality when he said markets ought not to “overreact.”

“I don’t want to sound heartless or cruel or anything. This is a human tragedy,” Kudlow said during an interview on CNBC. “It’s mostly centered in China. There is contagion elsewhere, Italy, Iran, I think that’s what’s upset the market.”

Trump and his administration have been putting much of their focus this week on shielding the President from unflattering news coverage on his fumbling efforts to address the coronavirus and attempting to stabilize the rapidly plunging stock market.

Latest News
311
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. They are desperate and afraid.

  2. Avatar for jtx jtx says:

    Waterloo

  3. Hopefully everybody there will heed his advise and turn of their TV, so when there is an outbreak in their neighborhood they will be oblivious

  4. Old Navy saying: "When there’s trouble on the deck, look to the bridge."

  5. Panicked is a better term.

    When incompetent people panic, all they are capable of doing is “searching for a scapegoat” so that it is “not THEIR fault.”

    Trump is HOWLING at Mulvaney because of the crashing Stock Market, and Mulvaney is panicking.

    I expect heads to begin to roll in the White House next week as Trump begins blaming “everybody but himself” for his ENTIRE Administration’s moronic, navel-gazing response to a Global Health Crisis.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

305 more replies

Participants

Avatar for jw1 Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for old_curmudgeon Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for george_spiggott Avatar for squirreltown Avatar for sniffit Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for 26degreesrising Avatar for leftcoaster Avatar for schmed Avatar for tena Avatar for daulphin Avatar for tsp Avatar for jtx Avatar for ljb860 Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for maximus Avatar for evave2 Avatar for bcgister Avatar for txlawyer Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for nydan516 Avatar for Mingus

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: