Donald Trump Spends Coronavirus Briefing Naming TV Hosts He Watches After Defending ‘Lying’ to Americans

President Donald Trump spent the majority of his Thursday coronavirus briefing discussing everything except the pandemic itself. At one point, Trump began naming TV hosts that he watches, after defending himself from accusations of “lying” to Americans about the severity of the virus. For the past two days, the president has had to face criticism over February recordings of him speaking with Bob Woodward about COVID-19, wherein he stated that he was aware of how serious the virus was. The statements contradict much of what Trump had been saying in the press during the same time.

On Thursday, after maintaining his innocence, Trump began to talk about some of his past critics and then began listing political commentators he likes, many of which are from Fox News. “If they say half as much as I already know just some seeing it. You have people – I watch some of the shows. I watched Liz McDonald. She’s fantastic. I watched Fox Business,” he said. “I watched Lou Dobbs last night. Sean Hannity last night. Tucker last night. Laura,” he added, referring to Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “I watched Fox & Friends in the morning,” Trump went on to say. “You watch these shows. You don’t have to go too far into the details. They cover things – it’s really an amazing thing.”

The Daily Mail noted that, in the past, Trump has gone on the record as saying, “I do not watch much television. People that don’t know me, they like to say I watch television — people with fake sources. You know, fake reporters, fake sources.” Notably, Trump’s statements on his own recent TV viewing habits, which include what would equal several hours in front of the screen, contradict those of his past statements.

Trump has repeatedly defended himself from the accusations that he was lying to the American public about the severity of coronavirus. “When Hitler was bombing London, Churchill, a great leader, would oftentimes go to a roof in London and speak and he always spoke with calmness,” Trump said at one point, per Politico. “He said we have to show calmness. No, we did it the right way.” The outlet noted that, in reality, Churchill was very forthright with British citizens about the threat that German fascism and Nazis posed to the nation, as well as to the world.