OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
Breitbart reported on a recent appearance that CNN’s Jim Acosta made on “Anderson Cooper 360” where he described the coronavirus has the president “scared”.
Acosta said, “I will say in terms of what the president was saying in the briefing room, this was President Trump changing his tune on the coronavirus. At one point he said it’s not the flu, it’s vicious. That’s after he has compared it to the coronavirus in the past.”
Acosta continued, “You mentioned just a few moments ago where he was advising that Americans perhaps start wearing scarves because of these recommendations that are starting to come from people like Dr. Fauci that perhaps wearing masks in public might be a good idea. At one point, the president said we’re about to enter a ruff two-week period.”
“This is just a stark contrast from what the president was saying a couple of weeks ago and how he’s been describing this coronavirus all along,” he added.
Acosta claimed that in his years of covering the White House, that this week’s was the most “stunning” of conferences. He described how “chilling” it was to have public health officials warn American citizens that several hundred thousand more people will die from the coronavirus in the next few months.
He also stated that the President reminded people that the coronavirus was much more “vicious” than the flu, and solemnly informed people that more bad news will come as the pandemic continues to spread.
Acosta continued, “The other thing I think needs to be pointed out, at one point the president, when I asked him, you know, could we have mitigated this a lot better? Could we have reduced the number of people facing, you know, the possible likelihood that they may die over the next couple of months? The president said, you see what happens when you get off to a late start?”
“He was pointing the finger at that point at New York state and other areas that weren’t really mitigating very strongly at first. But, Anderson, the same thing could be said of the president. He got off to a late start because of the way he was telling people that this was going to go away, that this was going to miraculously disappear, and so on,” Acosta said.
“I tried to press the president on that at a number of points, and he said, you know, when he was pressed on this, he said he simply wanted to keep people in good spirits, that he didn’t want to be somebody who was passing along bad news and he wanted to be an optimist and so on. But I have to tell you, Anderson, I’ve never seen President Trump like this. I know people might say, well, you know, I can’t ever trust him. He’s a phony and so on. People may say that.”
Acosta concluded, “Anderson, I have to tell you sitting in that room that close to him, I’ve never seen President Trump like this. I think, to some extent, he is scared right now, Anderson, and we could all feel that in the room.”
The responses the pandemic have been imperfect, but Acosta noted that lessons will be learned from the experiences across the world.
Acosta went on to say that although he had criticized President Trump in the past, that this was not conference that called for any.
The clear message of the briefing, according to Acosta, was that “this country is about to go through a horrendous, terrible experience”
H/T Breitbart
