New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi asked President Donald Trump whether he deserved re-election if more Americans die of coronavirus than in the Vietnam War.
Nuzzi asked the question during Monday afternoon’s Coronavirus Task Force briefing. (RELATED: CNN Guest Says Media Coverage Of Candidates ‘Aids And Abets Corruption’)
WATCH:
“If an American president loses more Americans over the course of six weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War, does he deserve to be re-elected?” Nuzzi asked.
Trump didn’t answer the question directly, instead choosing to highlight the steps his administration had taken to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.
“We’ve lost a lot of people. But if you look at what original projections were, 2.2 million, we’re probably heading to 60,000, 70,000,” he said. “It’s far too many. One person is too many for this. I think we’ve made a lot of really good decisions.”
Trump mentioned his initial ban on travel from China and touted Vice President Mike Pence’s efforts in leading the task force on a day to day basis. He then noted that no one was asking about ventilators anymore, now that a shortage of ventilators doesn’t appear to be the problem many expected it to be.
“No, I think we’ve done a great job,” Trump concluded, repeating, “One person — I will say this. One person is too many.”
Nuzzi defended the question after the fact, saying, “If more than 50,000 Americans died over the course of a few weeks at any time in our history, it would be fair to ask the president if he deserves to be reelected. It wasn’t a gotcha question, it wasn’t designed to provoke, and I appreciate the fact that Trump took it seriously.”
If more than 50,000 Americans died over the course of a few weeks at any time in our history, it would be fair to ask the president if he deserves to be reelected. It wasn’t a gotcha question, it wasn’t designed to provoke, and I appreciate the fact that Trump took it seriously.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) April 27, 2020