Trump Defends Coronavirus Record
As US Cases Near 600,000


New York has been this state hardest hit  by covert 19 and it was also battered on  Monday by bad weather health care  workers had to contend with heavy rain  and high winds at this emergency tent  facility in Central Park and they were  not the only ones weathering a storm in  Washington US President Donald Trump  faced criticism over his handling of the  crisis at his Daily Press briefing.



Trump Defends Coronavirus Record As US Cases Near 600,000

 The  president surprised journalists with  what some are calling a propaganda video  defending his response then he went on  the offensive remember this everything  we did I was criticized because I was  too early if I waited longer it would  have been you would have incurred if I  went way early if I went three months  earlier I would have been criticized you  know criticized for being way too early.




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I think I've educated a lot of people as  to the press and I would love to be able  to say that we have a very honest press  Trump said his administration was  finalizing a plan to reopen the US  economy  when questioned on who would decide on  relaxing lockdown rules Trump said he  would be calling the shots it's a  decision for the President of the United  States now with that being said we're  gonna work with the states because it's  very important several state governors  on the east and west coasts are  discussing the best way to open their  economies and ease stay at home orders  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo seemed to  suggest he thought it should be largely  up to individual states not the  president he left it to the states to  close down and that was a state-by-state  decision without any guidance.



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 Really he  took the position that it was a States  decision and then the states were  responsible for purchasing supplies etc  with infection numbers in New York  beginning to Plateau the calls to loosen  the lockdown are getting louder but the  road back to normalcy will be a long one  to tell us more I'm joined by DW  correspondent Oliver zealot in  Washington DC Oliver as we saw Trump  defended his response to the coronavirus  reaction what did you make of what he  said well this is one of those press  conference clear to be remembered a  highly unusual press conference with a  very very angry  president Trump lashing out against his  critics against the media.



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 He also  insulted journalists in the room you  just heard his sound buy it there so  really strongly trying to defend himself  and I was a very special moment in that  press conference when the White House  showed a campaign style video where they  actually defended the handling president  Trump's handling of that pandemic and  this is one of those videos that you  would actually see on a campaign rally  but not on a government press conference  of course so it really shows that  President Trump got under pressure u.s.  networks later called that video a  propaganda video and that happened after  Anthony Fauci.



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 President Trump's leading  expert in infectious diseases indirectly  criticized President Trump saying that  many lives could have been saved if the  government had acted earlier that's  right there's been some controversy  surrounding a Trump's response a to  director excuse me to dr. Anthony Fauci  can you tell us a little bit more about  that right and that controversy began  after those Falchi remarks that I just  mentioned and today President Trump  retweeted a tweet where someone called  for firing Antoni Falchi .



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 Then there  were additional media reports that Trump  was actually planning to do exactly that  firing his coronavirus export expert  excuse me which he then later rejected  as fake news so big controversy here  leading up to that press conference  Lilly later Anthony Falchi was trying to  put that into perspective in that press  conference he said he had a bad choice  of words he also said that Trump acted  when he told him to with regards to the  shutdown of course but with regards to  the import  assessment that he made that lives could  have been saved had the government acted  earlier he stayed on message and it is a  very serious situation for Trump you can  see that in his response as well the  election here in the United States is  coming up and President Trump really got  on the defensive so as we've seen that  back and forth between Falchi.




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 Trump  can you tell us how the situation in the  United States has been developing all  right so there's another debate right  now going on and that is about when to  reopen and who's in charge of reopening  the economy is that the governor's is  that the president's so total of nine US  states is now trying to organize  themselves trying to lift those  stay-at-home orders New York is one of  them they have seen a dip in  hospitalizations over the last days but  Andrew Cuomo New York's governor is  stressing that the situation is still  very bad that there are 2,000 new cases  every day and that you have to be very  careful when reopening the economy  warning about backlash correspondent.  



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