Ari Fleischer: Trump being realistic is best way to fight coronavirus
Ari Fleischer discusses President Trump's coronavirus briefing and how he should communicate his message to the American people
President Trump being “realistic” is his “best way” to fight coronavirus, former White House press secretary Ari Fleisher told “America’s Newsroom” on Wednesday.
He added that he was “very heartened” by some of the president’s comments during his first official press briefing on the pandemic since April, which took place on Tuesday.
During the briefing, Trump admitted that the public health crisis is likely to worsen, as cases surge across the country. He also asked all Americans to wear masks in public.
While Trump hailed his administration’s response to the pandemic and the work toward developing a vaccine, he bluntly disclosed what many Americans already know: that the crisis is likely to spread more before it can be contained.
“It will get worse before it gets better,” Trump said of the pandemic, which has infected close to 4 million Americans. “That’s something I don’t like saying but it is.”
“The administration is doing a lot,” noted Fleisher, who served as press secretary for President George W. Bush. “They’re sending nurses, doctors, medicine [and] PPE [Personal protective equipment] across to the hot spots.
“What the president has to do is be upfront and real about it,” he continued. “The American people are tough. The American people are resilient. They want to hear it straight, so when the president says it’s going to get worse before it gets better, that is actually what the president needs to do.”
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He went on to say that there is “no time for salesmanship [and] no time for promotion” and added that it is important to “be frank with the American people.”
“So I was very heartened to hear him say that yesterday,” Fleisher said.
Trump’s comments come after weeks where he either downplayed the virus’ continued spread or focused on other issues – from unrest over racial injustice in American cities to the removal of Confederate statues – despite cases of COVID-19 surging, particularly, in parts of the South and Southwest.
Fleisher said while he was “heartened” by some of Trump’s comments on Tuesday, he thinks “there is more that the White House can do with the president to put him in the front and center of where the action is” to showcase what “the administration is doing the right things to fight the virus.”
“I hope that will happen next,” he said.
When asked how he would showcase what the administration is doing to fight the virus, Fleisher pointed to the federal government's deployment of nurses and doctors “to places where there are staffing shortages.”
He went on to say that President Trump “should go meet with those nurses, meet with those doctors” and “thank them.”
“Trucks are rolling in with medicines from the federal stockpile so people in hospitals can get the help they need to save lives,” Fleisher noted. “The president should go to those warehouses and see those trucks off. Thank the truck drivers, thank HHS [U.S. Department of Health & Human Services] and CDC [The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] for taking care of this.”
He then said that “the problem has been, I think the president would prefer to talk about the economy, he’d prefer to talk about law and order, as he puts it.”
Fleisher stressed that the American people need to see that Trump is “front and center on corona and things are getting better and he cares.”
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“It’s a hurdle he has to get through first and he is doing the right things governmentally, he’s not doing the right things, I submit to you, communications-wise,” Fleisher said.
Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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