Tom Hanks’ eldest son, Colin made another outraged post about President Donald Trump‘s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have both tested positive for the virus, so the issue is personal for 42-year-old Colin. On Friday, he was outraged over the whole situation.
“Trump is as incapable of consoling us as he is of leading,” Colin Hanks wrote late on Friday night, after a White House press briefing. “He genuinely believes facts are not helping. He’d rather lie to the American people than try to find some sort of comforting words. Notice how Pence did not have a problem answering the question.”
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Trump is as incapable of consoling us as he is of leading. He genuinely believes facts are not helping. He’d rather lie to the American people than try to find some sort of comforting words. Notice how Pence did not have a problem answering the question.
— Colin Hanks (@ColinHanks) March 21, 2020
The angry tweet followed yet another press briefing from the White House on Friday, where the president commented on the progress in the coronavirus pandemic and the work left to be done. The question he referred to seemed to be one asked by Peter Alexander of NBC News: “What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?”
“I say that you’re a terrible reporter. I think it’s a nasty question,” the president replied.
Hanks’ followers were also clearly angry at the press briefing, as Hanks’ post picked up over 3,000 likes and nearly 200 retweets. Many responded with their own take on the situation.
“He is so far in over his head. They shouldn’t even allow him to speak at the press conferences. He should just stand to the side and let the others speak,” one person wrote.
NBC’s @PeterAlexander asks Trump what he’d say to Americans who are frightened.
Trump goes on rant against Alexander, says he asked a “nasty question,” calls him a “terrible reporter” and attacks NBC and Comcast. pic.twitter.com/vZAk3M4mqR
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 20, 2020
On Friday night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow made a similar point, highlighting misinformation in the president’s press briefing. For example, she pointed out that the president had hinted that a malaria drug might be the key to curing or vaccinating against the coronavirus, though no scientists have backed him up on that.
Within that same press conference, Dr. Anthony Fauci stepped forward to walk back that remark, saying that experiments with malaria drugs are still in the earliest stages of development. Maddow went so far as to say that it was dangerous to let the president say these kinds of things on TV.
“If the president does end up saying anything true, you can run it as tape but if he keeps lying like this every day on stuff this important, all of us should stop broadcasting it. Honestly, it’s gonna cost lives,” she said.
Maddow: If Trump is going to keep lying like he has been every day on stuff this important, we should, all of us, stop broadcasting it. Honestly, it’s going to cost lives. pic.twitter.com/tMvyrE3YTK
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) March 21, 2020
The president was back on the air again on Saturday afternoon with an equally controversial press conference. At the same time, The Financial Times published data showing that cases are still rising at an alarming rate in the U.S.
“No other country has been this far into the pandemic and still had the number of cases growing at the rates the U.S. is seeing,” tweeted economics professor Justin Wolfers.
For the latest information on the coronavirus pandemic, visit the CDC’s website.
