Bill Barr has called media criticism of President Donald Trump a ‘jihad.’ The Attorney General made the shocking comparison during an interview on Fox News.
Barr spoke to Fox’s Laura Ingraham on Thursday and defended the President’s handling of the Covid-19 global pandemic. He also took the opportunity to slam the press.
He said Trump’s actions had been “very statesmanlike” but the President had suffered “snarky, gotcha questions from the White House media pool.”
“The stridency of the partisan attacks on him [have] gotten higher and higher,” Barr said.
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“The politicization of decisions like hydroxychloroquine, it’s been amazing to me.”
Watch the video:
Barr says he’s disappointed about partisanship during the pandemic because the President has acted statesmanlike and worked with all the governors while dealing with gotcha questions from the media. He goes on to accuse the media of leading a jihad against Hydroxychloroquine pic.twitter.com/fW2NLDOzB7
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 9, 2020
Trump has been pushing hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19 for some time now. However, it is unproven and not approved by FDA as a treatment for the disease.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and others have warned against using hydroxychloroquine and said the “proof” of its effectiveness is “anecdotal”.
The Attorney General argued that Trump had been unfairly treated by the media for bringing up the drug.
“And the fact that it had such a long track record, the risks were pretty well-known,” Barr said.
“As soon as Trump said something positive about it, the media’s been on a jihad to discredit the drug.”
The President has pushed hydroxychloroquine repeatedly in his daily press briefings.
“I’m not looking at it one way or another. But we want to get out of this. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early,” Trump said.
“What do I know? I’m not a doctor,” he added.
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Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media
