During Donald Trump’s press briefing Thursday, he mused over the possibility of killing the coronavirus with “disinfectant,” asking his health advisors if there is “a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning.”
Obviously, there isn’t. His advisor had been talking about killing the virus in saliva using bleach but in the context of saliva on “indoor spaces,” not saliva while it’s still in the body, as pretty much anyone could have gathered from what he said.
So Trump wasted everyone’s time by wondering what would happen if you consumed bleach and he rightfully got dragged for it, both by the media and by pretty much everyone on Twitter. And boy is he pissed about it.
Today, when a reporter tried to clarify what he meant, he pulled out a twofold defense. Number one, he says he meant it “sarcastically” and number two, it was a “test” for reporters. I’m guessing they didn’t pass but I’m not sure what that would look like anyway. Not that it matters because it definitely wasn’t a test and it wasn’t sarcasm, as anyone who watched the actual briefing could clearly tell.
Here’s a mashup of Trump claiming today he was just asking “a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room” when he mused about disinfectant injections as a possible coronavirus miracle cure, followed by the original clip showing beyond a doubt that he was not doing that. pic.twitter.com/wby4ucd59Q
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 24, 2020
Absolutely no one believes him.
The president didn’t misspeak. He wasn’t confused about something and said something else. He wasn’t being sarcastic to scold those asking gotcha questions. He wasn’t misunderstood. The fact is, the president is stupid. He’s just a stupid man. Stupid. It’s very simple. https://t.co/bI2EPlAXbo
— Larry Wilmore (@larrywilmore) April 24, 2020
He wasn’t being sarcastic. I don’t think he knows what sarcasm is.
— roxane gay (@rgay) April 24, 2020
I did not foresee a future with a president who hides behind Poe’s Law. https://t.co/GA2rEZrImO
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) April 24, 2020
I would like to announce that when I gave wrong answers on Jeopardy, I was being sarcastic.
— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) April 24, 2020
Okay, I take it back. I can’t say no one believes him. Because Breitbart was quick to come to his defense with a “fact-check” that doesn’t actually check any facts. What it does is offer up a possible explanation for what Trump might have meant–although even that argument presupposes that Trump was being serious, which he says he wasn’t, so … I don’t know where that leaves us. Nowhere good, I’m sure.
Breitbart’s going with the “don’t believe your lying eyes” defense. pic.twitter.com/MqsfgkzOCO
— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) April 24, 2020
From the Breitbart “fact check” screenshotted in the above tweet. You can’t make this shit up pic.twitter.com/5tfkiIJuOo
— Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp) April 24, 2020
BREITBART FACT CHECK: Reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It’s our most essential fact check!
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) April 24, 2020
By the way, even if Trump had been being sarcastic–which he wasn’t!–I don’t see how that would have been any better.
Trump now claims his dangerous misinformation about ingesting disinfectants yesterday was “sarcastic.”
He’s lying of course, but even if he weren’t, joking about imaginary virus treatments would be pretty messed up too!!!
— Jason Kander (@JasonKander) April 24, 2020
The president isn’t a comedian working out new material on the road. He knows that, we know that. He can apologize for speaking recklessly, or he can regret it quietly, but the media should not participate in a national gaslighting.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) April 24, 2020
Let’s be clear on something: Trump wasn’t being sarcastic when he talked about injecting bleach into humans as a solution, but even if he were being sarcastic, he did so during a nationally televised presser in the middle of a pandemic a month after a man died from chloroquine.
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) April 24, 2020
📈’Sarcasm’: a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain https://t.co/DR9F4F3q3h
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) April 24, 2020
Even his gaslighting defenses make him look terrible.
(image: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
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