President Donald Trump argued on Monday morning that it ought to be against the law for the news media to cover the pandemic ahead of the elections as the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. surpasses 225,000.
“We have made tremendous progress with the China Virus, but the Fake News refuses to talk about it this close to the Election,” he tweeted. “COVID, COVID, COVID is being used by them, in total coordination, in order to change our great early election numbers. Should be an election law violation!”
Amid his failure to address the pandemic, Trump has publicly griped several times about the media reporting on COVID-19, even going as far as calling CNN “dumb bastards” for doing so.
“You turn on CNN, that’s all they cover,” he ranted during a campaign rally in Arizona last week. “COVID, COVID, pandemic, COVID, COVID, COVID. You know why? They’re trying to talk everybody out of voting. People aren’t buying it, CNN, you dumb bastards.”
The President went on a similar tirade at another rally several days later in North Carolina.
“All you hear is COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID,” he complained. “That’s all they put on, because they want to scare the hell out of everyone.”
Meanwhile, the White House has admitted that it’s given up on trying to contain the virus.
“We are not going to control the pandemic,” White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Sunday. “We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas.”
