Topline
President Trump at the Tuesday night ABC News town hall.
Key Facts
“You'll develop herd—like, a herd mentality. It's going to be—it's going to be herd-developed,” Trump replied in response to host George Stephanopoulos, who had just asked the president to clarify his statement that the virus will “go away without the vaccine.”
Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, tweeted: “I can’t bear knowing that his supporters don’t care that he is the stupidest public figure in the entire world.”
“To achieve a herd immunity of 60%, around 200 million Americans need to catch the coronavirus and 3 million Americans need to die,” Dr. Eugene Gu, a Stanford-educated physician, wrote on Twitter.
“Everyone is saying the #TrumpTownHall was a bigly disaster for @realDonaldTrump,” Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Ca., tweeted, mockingly referencing one of Trump’s signature adverbs.
Trump’s town hall performance showed that “our president cannot handle real questions,” Russell Foster, a Democrat running for the House in Texas, wrote on Twitter.
Fox News’ Laura Ingraham criticized the town hall as an “ambush” on Trump, while conservatives on social media wondered if a former Republican press secretary would be allowed to question Joe Biden, in reference to Stephanopoulos’ former role as White House communications director under Democrat Bill Clinton.
Chief Critic
“This was just a fire hose of lying,” CNN reporter Daniel Dale said after the town hall, in a segment fact-checking Trump’s statements.
Big Number
4. That’s how many Pinocchios the Washington Post gave Trump’s town hall performance in an analysis of two dozen of his claims.
Key Background
Tuesday’s town hall was an atypical experience for Trump as he took questions from everyday American voters. Most of the event was focused on coronavirus, with Trump defending his administration’s response to the crisis. Trump also claimed he “up-played” the virus’ threat to the public, in a contradiction of journalist Bob Woodward’s bombshell tape recording of Trump admitting in February that he was downplaying the virus. The New York Times noted that Trump’s comments on the virus were out of step with those of public health officials. Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the country’s top infectious disease experts, warned on Friday that normal life may not resume until late in 2021. Scott Jennings, a Republican and former appointee of George W. Bush, wrote in a CNN opinion piece that “the event showed [Trump] is simply better in a pugilistic debate with an opponent than he is in addressing individual voters in a ‘townhall’ format,” but described the voters’ questions as “hostile.”
Further Reading
Trump, in Philadelphia, Says He ‘Up-Played’ the Virus, Then Downplays It (New York Times)
