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The Wall Street Journal Board Has Had Enough Of Donald Trump's Coronavirus Briefings

The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published a column attacking President Donald Trump’s daily White House coronavirus task force briefings.

In the editorial titled “Trump’s Wasted Briefings,” the conservative newspaper’s board said the pressers had started off as “a good idea to educate the public” about the pandemic but had now descended into “a boring show of President Vs. the press” after Trump decided to make them all about himself.

Trump’s frequent “outbursts against his political critics” were “notably off-key at this moment” given the “once-a-century threat to American life and livelihood,” it added, noting how public health officials have in the briefings been relegated to the role of “supporting actors.”

“If Mr. Trump thinks these daily sessions will help him defeat Joe Biden, he’s wrong,” the board wrote, suggesting Trump’s 2020 campaign against the de facto Democratic nominee Biden is “about one issue: how well the public thinks the President has done in defeating the virus and restarting the economy.”

The board concluded with some advice for Trump, who they suggested should largely step aside from the briefings, allow Vice President Mike Pence to take control and only appear occasionally to reinforce the message.

Read the full editorial here.

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