World / Keep your voice down: Trump to female reporter questioning COVID-19 response

US President Donald Trump told a female reporter to keep her voice down after she questioned what the government had done to prepare for coronavirus in February. "People are saying you should've warned about the virus than holding rallies with thousands of people," CBS reporter Weijia Jiang said. Trump said his China travel ban is proof that he acted fast.

CNN : Apr 21, 2020, 08:49 AM
Washington: Donald Trump reprimanded a reporter and told her to ‘keep your voice down’ in his latest outburst against the press at his coronavirus briefings. 

The confrontation occurred at White House briefing on Sunday after he was asked a question by CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang, who asked him a question about a statement he made Thursday, where he said he was ‘angry’ because the truth about the virus ‘should have been told to us a lot sooner.’ 

On Sunday, Jiang asked Trump: ‘Many Americans are saying the exact same thing about you, that you should’ve warned them the virus was spreading like wildfire through the month of February instead of holding rallies with thousands of people. Why did you wait so long to warn them?’ 

Before answering, Trump repeatedly asked Jiang ‘Who are you with?’ After Jiang identified herself and her press affiliation, Trump began a self-congratulatory rant about his travel restrictions from China, which he ordered on January 31, but Jiang interrupted the president and said the restrictions only applied to Chinese nationals’ and not Americans flying home from China, which appeared to anger the president.

Nice and easy, nice and easy. Just relax,’ He told Jiang, but she continued to press on.

‘You’re the president. You didn’t warn people that it was spreading so quickly,’ she said as both she and Trump began speaking simultaneously. ‘So, do you acknowledge that you didn’t think it was going to spread,’ Jiang said. ‘Keep your voice down, please. Keep your voice down,’ Trump responded.

‘I believe there were no deathsw, zero deaths at that time I closed the country. Nobody was there and you should say thank you very much for good judgement,’ Trump said before moving on to another reporter. This is not the president’s first tense encounter with Jiang during his series of coronavirus press briefings. On April 3, he lashed out at the CBS repoter, telling her ‘you ought to be ashamed of yourself,’ when she asked about Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kusher, which Trump said was in ‘a very nasty tone.’

Trump has repeatedly sparred with reporters during the briefings and has targeted other members of the press as well. On Saturday, the president called Jiang’s coworker, CBS White House correspondent Paula Reid, ‘so disgraceful’ for implying that he wasted the time the China travel ban had given him to prepare the country for the outbreak.