CNN, MSNBC Cut Away From Donald Trump Coronavirus Briefing As It Focuses On Counter Narcotics Operations

CNN and MSNBC each turned away from President Donald Trump’s coronavirus briefing after it started with an announcement — about a new advanced counter-narcotics operation.

The networks found it off topic, particularly as Trump began to talk about the progress of the construction of a wall along the southern border, a signature campaign promise.

CNN’s John King expressed his annoyance.

“When you are an incumbent president, to bring that into a briefing in the middle of a pandemic, the day after the incredibly sobering news the administration rightfully delivered to the American people yesterday is shameless and it’s political,” He said. “The president has other opportunities to do this. There are 24 hours in a day. He has all the buildings of the government still at his disposal.”

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd said, “If President Trump had important coronavirus news to tell us, it must not have trumped this.”

The networks later returned to the briefing when the focus turned back solely to the coronavirus crisis.

The news networks have been under some pressure, even by some of their on-air talent, to stop covering the coronavirus briefings live, arguing that they have, at times, taken on the rhetoric of one of Trump’s campaign rallies, or that they are next-to-impossible to fact-check the president in real time. The times that CNN and MSNBC have cut away have also come with some pushback from White House officials and the Republican National Committee.

But King argued that while Trump can use his bully pulpit to his advantage in an election year, as his predecessors have, “this is different.

“This is a pandemic where the American people are being told 100,000, maybe 200,000 of our friends, our neighbors, our fellow citizens, could perish in his pandemic. You cannot abuse a coronavirus task force briefing for other measures.”

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