White House correspondent explains how Donald Trump ended up bailing on his own press conference
On Monday we saw one of the most surreal and disturbing moments in White House press conference history, when Donald Trump made a racist remark about CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, then called on CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins, only to change his mind, try to call on someone else, and then give up and sheepishly walk out.
Of course we only saw the event from the camera’s perspective. PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor was the reporter in the back whom Trump tried to call on after he changed his mind about taking Collins’ question. Here’s how Alcindor says it went down:
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Why did Trump end WH briefing? @weijia asked Trump why he sees this as "a global competition" when 80K have died. He said: "Ask China."
He tried to move on but wouldn’t let @kaitlancollins ask her Q.
He called on me but I motioned for Kaitlin to ask her Q so Trump walked off.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 11, 2020
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So there were actually three strong women doing their jobs well, who collectively sent Donald Trump over the edge and prompted him to cut and run. In addition to being a sexist, a racist, and a bully, Trump is also an easily triggered coward.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report