At a campaign rally in Prescott, Arizona on Monday, President Trump attacked one of his favorite media targets, calling CNN “dumb bastards” for focusing coverage on the coronavirus pandemic that the president insisted people were “getting tired of.”
“You turn on CNN, that’s all they cover,” the president said. “Covid, Covid, pandemic, Covid, Covid. You know why? They’re trying to talk people out of voting. People aren’t buying it, CNN, you dumb bastards.”
Of the coronavirus, the president said “if you have it, you have it, you get better.”
The president’s comments about the coronavirus and CNN come after the Trump campaign has sent a letter asking that the subjects for the final presidential debate be changed. The letter, shared on Twitter by Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, says “for the good of campaign integrity…we urge you to rethink and reissue a set of topics for the October 22 debate, with an emphasis on foreign policy.”
The issues to be discussed at the debate—according to the Commission on Presidential Debates—includes race in America, climate change and “fighting Covid-19.”
The president’s remarks were quickly turned into a social media message by The Lincoln Project, a group run by longtime Republican political campaign strategists who have united to defeat Trump, who they believe has betrayed the Republican Party—and the country:
