At the White House today Trump took a few questions from the media and one from a Yahoo News reporter who claimed that South Korea was doing five times more testing than the US. This is how it began:
REPORTER: South Korea has done 5 times more tests than the US per capita. Why is that?
TRUMP: I don't think that's true
R: That is true, and you said the US passed South Korea in virus testing
T: I don't think that's true. Who are you with?
R: Yahoo
TRUMP: *has Birx answer* pic.twitter.com/SDsk2Csr0e
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 28, 2020
Trump said he didn’t think it was true but the reporter insisted it was and wouldn’t back down.
Later on, Dr. Birx came back with the numbers that showed that we are doing 6 more tests per 100k than South Korea, and that’s when Trump laid into the reporter for getting his facts wrong:
President @realDonaldTrump and Dr. Deborah Birx corrected fake news today from a Yahoo that works for Yahoo. Trump hammers the reporter and then a smiling Dr. Birx adds "Just check it again". 😂 pic.twitter.com/XSZKIC4FC6
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) April 28, 2020
The Yahoo reporter didn’t even seem to care that he’d gotten it wrong. Incredulous to the end!
On a side note, it is funny to see the dichotomy between how combative Trump is versus how delicate Dr. Birx is saying “just check it again.” I’m not blaming Trump, just noting the stark difference. Trump is clearly tired of the fake news from reporters, especially when they obstinate like this guy.