Trump Attacks CNN and Jim Acosta Over Report That He Doesn’t Understand the Severity of the Pandemic

President Donald Trump attacked CNN and Jim Acosta, its chief White House correspondent, following a report that quoted a source on the official coronavirus task force that he doesn’t understand the severity of the pandemic.

“@CNN has no sources on the Task Force,” the president claimed. “Their ‘sources’ are made up, pure fiction! Jim Acosta is a Fake reporter!”

The report, published earlier this morning, quoted a source who attended a task force meeting yesterday.

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“He still doesn’t get it,” the source said in reference to the president. “He does not get it.”

The source said those in attendance had a difficult time convincing the president about the importance of wearing masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“He starts talking about something else,” the source said, adding, “His mood lately is not a happy mood.”

The source noted Vice President Mike Pence “gets it,” but that he appears “conflicted” in his dealings with the task force in that he understands their concerns while at the same time tempering his comments to avoid getting on the wrong side of the president.

In an interview with Axios that generated much negative press, the president asserted that the virus “is under control” despite a death toll that has exceeded 160,000 and has regularly surpassed 1,000 a day in recent weeks.

“It is what it is,” Trump said, later claiming rather incomprehensibly that the United States “is lower than the world.”

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.