Washington: United States of America’s President Donald Trump ended the press conference rather abruptly after a riff with an Asian-American journalist, Weijia Jiang.
During his press briefing on Monday, he had a testy conversation, which is being considered as ‘racist’ by many observers and journalists.
It started when a TV network CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang asked Trump as to why he insisted on America doing better than other countries when it came to testing the virus while the country continues to top the list of the countries worst affected by coronavirus with 80,000 Americans losing their lives because of inadequate testing.
Jiang asked, “You’ve said many times that the U.S. is doing far better than any other country when it comes to testing. Why does that matter? 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?”
To this Trump responded saying, “They’re losing their lives everywhere in the world. Maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me, ask China that question, okay? When you ask them that question, you may get a very unusual answer.”
He went ahead and pointed at CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins to ask him her question, who waited for Jiang to complete her question.
“Sir, why are you saying that to me specifically? That I should ask China?” questioned Jiang implying that the remark was due to her race. Trump tried to get back at her, “”I’m not saying it specifically to anybody, I’m saying it to anyone that would ask a nasty question like that.”
Jiang pointed out that it wasn’t a nasty question. Kaitlan Collins then began to ask her question, but Trump pointed to a different reporter.
Collins repeatedly kept saying that the president had called on her to ask the question to which Trump said that she dint respond when she was given the chance. The third female reported Trump had pointed at, waited for Collins which irked the President and he stormed off, not answering any other journalist’s question.
It dint take time for this get to get viral on social media with the people calling out on Trump for being a racist and passing such a comment. Others applauded Jiang for staying on her point and not getting pushed back. This isn’t the first time when trump has got on a bad term with any journalist. He is often seen speaking ill with journalists and news reporters.
Twitter saw many people lashing out on him after this incident. “Dear @realDonaldTrump: Asian Americans are Americans. Some of us served on active duty in the U.S. military. Some are on the frontlines fighting this pandemic as paramedics and health care workers. Some are reporters like @weijia. Stop dividing our nation.#trumppressconference,” wrote US House Candidate, Ted Lieu.
A user tweeted, “Weijia Jiang is an Asian American reporter who simply asked Trump why he’s treating coronavirus testing like a competition between countries out of prideful vanity when Americans are dying. Trump telling her to go “ask China” is so flagrantly racist, demeaning, and unacceptable.”
While another woman talked about how he treats female journalists this way, “Trump responds to @weijia with racism and misogyny. This is happening at every press briefing–Trump attacks women reporters with a special focus on WOC.”
