Ari Fleischer: 'Gotcha' questions to Trump useless, briefings need to be shorter
Former White House Press Sec. Ari Fleischer told 'Outnumbered' reporters run out of good questions after 30 minutes which is when briefings should end
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Former White House press secretary and Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer told "Outnumbered" Tuesday that one big change must be made to White House coronavirus task force briefings following Monday's testy exchanges between the president and members of the White House press corps.
Fleischer told co-hosts Melissa Francis and Harris Faulkner and Fox News contributors Dr. Nicole Saphier and Jessica Tarlov that reporters "advocating against the president" during the briefings lead to "barroom brawls" which waste America's time.
"Let me start with the reporter because I think the reporter was out-of-bounds," said Fleischer of CBS News reporter Paula Reid, who challenged President Trump on what the federal government did in February to prevent the spread of the virus, leading to heated crosstalk.
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"It's a perfectly legitimate question to say to the president, 'Mr. President, can you tell us what you did in February? Will you walk us through it?' Perfectly legit," Fleischer remarked. "It's another for the reporter to act like the resistance, giving a statement, [and] making a speech advocating against the president."
"So, you know, the reporters bait the president. The president takes the bait. And, therefore, we have a barroom brawl," Fleischer explained.
"Speaking of barrooms," he added, "I've been recommending for a while that the briefing go no more than 30 minutes with the Qs and As. Reporters run out of questions after 30 minutes. But, it also reminds me of being in a bar after 2 a.m. All the good stuff has already happened."
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"Probably the only thing left to happen after 2 a.m. is the bad stuff," Fleischer added. "So, end the briefings at about 30 minutes. Get out of the bar at about 2 a.m."
"Otherwise, you're going to get in trouble on the way home," he concluded.
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