At Monday’s COVID-19 press briefing at the White House, President Donald Trump was asked a pointed question by a CBS reporter, insinuating the president was being competitive with other countries in regards to the handling of the coronavirus.

CBS reporter Weijia Jiang asked the president, “Why is this a global competition to you if Americans are still losing their lives?” Here is the exchange:

President Donald Trump told an Asian-American journalist to "ask China" about her question, and after a contentious exchange, abruptly ended the press conference https://t.co/hYFHzsx9l8 pic.twitter.com/ykJ9XVn3bg

— CNN (@CNN) May 12, 2020

By Tuesday, all you have to do is start typing “reporter” in your Google search bar and her name appears. The media puppets have gone wild. 

Ben Shapiro, Editor in Chief of the Daily Wire, brings levity to the situation that the rest of the media can’t seem to find. Shapiro said, “Guys, he thinks China is responsible. And he is right.”

By the way, the question was absolutely abysmal. This is not a question, it is an attempt to make the nightly news: "Why is this a global competition to you if every day Americans are still losing their lives and we're still seeing more cases every day?"

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 12, 2020

Amazing to watch the same media who spent a month ripping Trump as racist for calling covid-19 the "Chinese virus" now explaining that Trump's "ask China" response was unexpected and racism directed against the reporter. Guys, he thinks China is responsible. And he is right.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 12, 2020

Fox News contributor Johnny Jones shared a video from Joy Behar, host of ABC’s daytime talk show “The View,” where Behar called Trump a “disgusting racist” and told his supporters to “ask themselves if they are racist also.”

Jones pointed out that it’s hard to read the president’s mind. But when Trump told the reporter to “ask China” in response to a question that insisted he was stirring up competition, the president was probably expressing that it’s Chinese leaders who want competition with the U.S.

The question “why is it a competition” @realDonaldTrump responds “maybe you should ask ChInA!” I have no clue, like many of his statements what he meant… but in a vacuum of emotion, I would assume he meant they’re the ones who have treated everything like a competition w/US https://t.co/dr02fnPSla

— Joey Jones (@Johnny_Joey) May 12, 2020

The media response sparked an interesting Twitter debate between CNN anchor Brian Stelter and Fox News personality Greg Gutfeld, after Stelter said on the air that it was racist of Trump to tell an Asian-American woman to “ask China.” Stelter also said that when it comes to the press, Trump has a “pattern” of treating minorities and women differently. Gutfeld, host of “The Five,” and of the Greg Gutfeld show on Fox News, fought back against the narrative Stelter was propagating. 

For this to make sense you would have to willfully ignore that 8000 times trump blamed China to reporters of every race, gender etc. or you could just be fundamentally stupid. It’s stelter, so… https://t.co/aF8xzZUmau

— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) May 11, 2020

Gutfeld criticized CCN’s logic (or lack thereof) in coming to the conclusion that the incident between the president and CBS reporter Weijia Jiang was more proof of the network’s constant claim that Trump is racist. 

An analogy: Bob swears at rude drivers often. Then he swears at a rude driver who's not white. CNN says, Aha: Bob's racist. Their grift: ignore the color-blind behavior & selectively pick an instance that enables a smear. CNN must know they're doing this. Trash.

— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) May 12, 2020

CNN’s Stelter responded to Gutfeld, defending his claims of racism with the fact that Trump said “ask China” twice. So Greg told him to go home and take a bath.

THAT'S your defense? That all Trump's references to China's dealings -from trade to fentanyl to corona – which go back years, publicly – must conform to your desperate specifications? So, it must be "TWICE?" Do you realize how hilarious that is? Go home. Take a bath https://t.co/WeB2danvAt

— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) May 12, 2020

As a further burn, Gutfeld mocked CNN and Stelter for putting out a CNN poll about their own reliability. They must have polled people in airports—their main audience. Lucky for CNN airports aren’t busy right now. 

CNN survey asks if you like CNN. Surprise, you think they're swell! Some other ideas for CNN survey questions:
-does this shirt make me look fat?
-did you notice I'm working out?
-will you be my friend? https://t.co/CNGZkyOkl5

— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) May 12, 2020

In the end, the media can scream racism at Trump all day, but it’s up to intelligent, mature, Americans to decide for themselves and ignore the noise. 

This piece was written by Robyn Kenney on May 12, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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