FRIDAy, MARCH 27 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST eZ re A
the coronavirus pandemic
BY ASHLEY PARKER
AND TOLUSE OLORUNNIPASince mid-January, President
Trump has spent a total of 12
hours speaking publicly about the
novel coronavirus — amounting
to more than 143,000 words, ac-
cording to Factba.se, a data analy-
sis firm. He h as tweeted about the
virus 138 times. And in the past
week alone, the president has
spoken for more than 300 min-
utes — or five hours — during
daily coronavirus news confer-
ences.
Trump’s on-air ubiquity is part
of a deliberate White House strat-
egy to place the president front
and center as the pitchman and
public relations impresario for
the coronavirus response.
He i s saturating cable news and
Twitter, filling the airwaves and
Internet with words — often
hopeful and optimistic talk that
at times contradicts his public
health experts, is not always root-
ed in scientific reality and can
veer off topic.
But despite the criticism and
alarm Trump’s p rescriptions have
prompted, his poll numbers have
ticked up and his dominance of
the media landscape has made it
more difficult for Democrats —
including former vice president
Joe Biden, who leads the presi-
dential field in delegates — to
break through with their own
message.
A recent Gallup poll showed
Trump’s approval rating back up
to 49 percent, the highest rating
of his presidency, f rom 44 percent
earlier this month, with 60 per-
cent of the public approving of his
handling of the coronavirus pan-
demic. A more recent Monmouth
University poll found 50 percent
saying Trump has done a good job
dealing with the coronavirus out-
break, while 45 percent said he
has done a bad job.
In some ways, Trump — a for-
mer reality television host who
craves the spotlight — has long
wanted to be his own press secre-
tary, communications director
and chief strategist, believing that
just about any crisis can be solved
through compelling messaging
and his omnipresence.
Recently, he spoke enthusiasti-
cally to aides about reopening the
White House briefing room,
which has languished under cur-
rent press secretary Stephanie
Grisham, and taking to the lec-
tern himself, said one person fa-
miliar with the president’s com-
ments, speaking on the condition
of anonymity to share candid de-
tails.
The White House has pushed
the daily news conference to early
evening — a nod to the president’s
desire to appear in prime time —
and over the past two weeks,
those daily briefings have lasted
an average of nearly 75 minutes
each, according to Factba.se.
On Tuesday, in addition to
speaking for nearly half of the
41-minute coronavirus news con-
ference, Trump also participated
in a virtual Fox News town hall
with other virus task force mem-
bers and conducted a separate
Fox News interview. O n Thursday,
he was slated to appear on Fox
News’s “Hannity” in addition to
the daily news conference.
“ During these uncertain and
ever-changing times, it is impor-
tant that the American people are
hearing directly from their presi-
dent,” Grisham said in an email.
“We have also been ensuring that
members of the task force are
available to give updates and an-
swer questions. Providing the
public with as much information
as possible right now is para-
mount.”
When Trump’s coronavirus
events are not carried live, his
allies have publicly complained.
On Monday, White House spokes-
man Judd Deere took to Twitter to
call CNN’s and MSNBC’s deci-
sions not to air the daily briefing
in its entirety “ pretty disgraceful.”
On Thursday, Trump’s son Eric
also griped on Twitter about the
media not always showing the full
briefing: “This is truly sick in the
time of national emergency,” he
wrote.
But Trump’s turns behind the
lectern and on television often
result in the spread of misinfor-
mation, as well as suggestions —
such as the president’s stated
wish to reopen the country by
Easter — that undermine his owntop public health advisers’ posi-
tions.
On Wednesday, for instance, a
day before the Labor Department
announced that a record 3.3 mil-
lion Americans had applied for
unemployment benefits, Trump
said he does not believe the eco-
nomic impact of the coronavirusis “going to end up being such a
rough patch.” And amid a global
pandemic that so far has sickened
more than 82,000 Americans and
left more than 1,000 dead, he also
spoke about “certain states right
now that have virtually no prob-
lem” and boasted that he and his
team have done “one hell of a job.”
“It’s lucky that you have this
group here, right now, for this
problem, or you wouldn't even
have a country left, okay?” Trump
said.
In previous news conferences,
he repeatedly pushed for the use
of several drugs, including a com-
bination of hydroxychloroquine
and azithromycin, to treat the
virus, even though there is so far
no scientific proof of their effica-cy.
Anthony S. Fauci, an infec-
tious-disease expert and member
of the coronavirus task force, has
tried to reconcile Trump’s overly
optimistic rhetoric with medical
facts, saying in briefings and in-
terviews that the president is a
well-intentioned leader seekingsolace in unproven anecdotal evi-
dence during a time of crisis.
“He’s coming from it from a
hope layperson standpoint,” Fau-
ci said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the
Nation.” “I’m coming at it from a
scientific standpoint.”
Some medical experts say that
Trump’s happy talk is, in fact,
dangerous. Benjamin Sommers, a
doctor who teaches at the Har-
vard T.H. Chan School of Public
Health, said Trump’s near con-
stant media presence, combined
with his muddled comments, is
further confusing the virus re-
sponse.
“What we really don’t n eed and
what isn’t helpful is misinforma-
tion or half-formed scientific in-
formation being offered from thebully pulpit or fundamentally in-
consistent statements day to day
that leave people quite unclear
what the government’s doing and
what we all ought to be doing as
citizens,” Sommers said.
Trump’s political rivals, too,
have tried to turn his constant
chatter against him. A pro-Biden
super PAC released a nationwide
ad this week citing many of
Trump’s own words to depict him
as unprepared and ill-suited to
handle a national crisis. Several
other groups have also run simi-
lar ads juxtaposing Trump’s run-
ning commentary with the grim
reality of the worsening coronavi-
rus crisis.
One ad from the Democratic
super PAC group Priorities USA —
which highlights Trump’s rosy
comments about the pandemic
while displaying a chart showing
the rapidly growing number of
coronavirus cases — has drawn
particular ire from Trump’s a llies.
The president’s campaign has
called on television stations to
stop running the ad, calling it
misleading.
Biden has bluntly called on
Trump to speak less. “He should
stop talking and start listening to
the medical experts,” Biden said
on CNN on Tuesday.
But Trump’s stream of words
also poses a serious challenge for
Democrats, blocking out their
messages and dusting Trump
with a veneer of competence and
action.
“You see all these positive im-
ages and positive statements for
the president, and this president
has never appeared to suffer
when he’s said things that are
inaccurate,” said Barbara Perry, a
presidential historian at the Uni-
versity of Virginia’s Miller Center
of Public Affairs. “It bolsters up
the base, and it may just be that
those who don’t love him but just
are crying out for leadership view
that as leadership.”
For the first time in decades,
Biden finds himself in the midst
of a major crisis without any role
as an elected official. He a lso lacks
the tapestry of the White House
briefing room and instead has
been left with a work-from-home
setting where a television cameracaptures him in his basement, a
bookshelf and lamp behind him.
“The new technologies are
quite effective,” B iden told report-
ers during a briefing Wednesday
conducted through Zoom soft-
ware. He noted that his speech
Monday was not covered by the
networks but said he was pleased
when staff told him it got some
3.8 million views online.
Still, the potential nominee
seems in search of a prominent
platform, saying he was “chomp-
ing at the bit” and waxing nostal-
gic about his days in the Senate
when he would have been “able to
impact on some of these things.”
“ But I am where I am,” Biden
said. “I hope to be the nominee of
the Democratic Party. And I hope
I’m able to get my message across
as we go forward.”
Chris Jackson, the chairman
pro tempore of the Lawrence
County C ommission in Te nnessee
and a Biden supporter, tweeted
Wednesday imploring the media
to give Biden similar coverage to
Trump.
“The saturation of seeing
Trump all day — most Americans
don’t pay attention to the minuti-
ae of what he says, but all they see
is that he’s responding on televi-
sion all day and think he’s doing a
good job,” Jackson said.
For Trump allies, the presi-
dent’s omnipresence can feel
reminiscent of the 2016 cam-
paign, when Trump seemed to be
everywhere all at once, be it on-
stage during rallies, on television
or on Twitter.
“Putting the president front
and center to address the country
day after day is a no-brainer,” s aid
Cliff Sims, a former White House
aide who also worked on the pres-
ident’s 2016 campaign. “The
briefings present him as part na-
tional leader, part spokesperson,
part master of ceremonies. It’s a
dynamic that plays to his
strengths, and the polling data
shows the American people are
responding favorably to him tak-
ing charge in such a public way.”
[email protected]
[email protected]scott Clement and Matt Viser
contributed to this report.Trump’s on-air ubiquity is part of a deliberate s trategy — and it’s working
JABIn Botsford/tHe WAsHIngton Post
President Trump’s comments on the coronavirus often contradict
his public health experts, but his poll numbers have ticked up.“This president has never appeared to suffer when
he’s said things that are inaccurate.”
Barbara Perry , University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public AffairsThere’s a severe blood shortage.Healthy donors needed.Schedule now at RedCrossBlood.org292901 -14 3/