At White House briefing, Trump ‘defensive’ over administration’s pandemic response

Judy Woodruff:

And we turn now to our White House correspondent, Yamiche Alcindor, for the latest.

So, Yamiche, what more do we know about the administration's response to all this in the early days? And, separately, what are you hearing about the president's desire to get things opened up?

Yamiche Alcindor:

Well, it's clear that the president and health officials were at least delayed in easing and in recommending mitigation — in mitigation and in social distancing guidelines.

And the president just now had a remarkable press briefing that's still going on where he is defending, point by point, his response to the coronavirus. And, in doing so, he showed this kind of campaign-style video that we have just never seen at a White House briefing before.

He was asked about it. He said that White House staff put it together. But it's clear that the president is feeling very defensive because of the reporting that Eric just talked to you about and also because of the reporting that, of course, we have been doing on the "NewsHour," that shows he was very eager to try to get through this without doing mitigation.

Judy Woodruff:

And, Yamiche, I want to ask you about something that came up earlier in the program.

And that is the president retweeting the statement that Anthony Fauci, who, of course, has been a critical figure in the administration's response to the — to COVID-19, that he should be fired.

The administration today said that he's not going anywhere, but what's the latest that you — that you have been able to learn?

Yamiche Alcindor:

Well, today, Dr. Fauci and President Trump spoke about this right at the beginning of the White House briefing.

And the president said that he and Anthony Fauci's relationship is really great and that people are making something out of nothing. He said that he retweeted a tweet that said fire Fauci without really thinking about it. He said, I don't really know why I retweeted it.

Of course, the president has 76 million Twitter followers. So, this is a very big megaphone. And he said, I didn't mean that I would want to fire Anthony Fauci. I'm not going to fire Anthony Fauci.

So, the president and Dr. Fauci are both making it clear that Dr. Fauci's job is completely secure, which, for the critics of the president, is going to make them very calm and very comfortable with the fact that that is the way that's going forward as of right now.

Judy Woodruff:

But, Yamiche, just quickly, the president — some people who are fans of the president have been critical of Dr. Fauci.

Yamiche Alcindor:

That's right.

There's been a move on the conservative right to talk about Dr. Anthony Fauci in a very criticizing way, to talk about the fact that he might be part of reason why the president won't get reelected.

But the president is saying that he is not part of that, and that people should — that he respects Dr. Fauci and that other people should too.

Judy Woodruff:

Yamiche Alcindor, thank you very much.