President Donald Trump abruptly ended a press conference on Saturday after facing a question about why he has repeatedly claimed credit for a major bill helping former military members access healthcare that was actually passed by Barack Obama in 2014.
Trump held a press conference on Saturday from his company’s Bedminister golf resort in New Jersey, where he has spent the last several days.
While announcing an executive order issuing some relief measures for Americans hurt by the coronavirus — which reporters noted was an unusual precedent that attempted to go around Congress and is expected to face legal challenges — Trump also claimed credit for passing the Veterans Choice program.
Trump begins his August 8 Bedminster news conference with some casual xenophobia, and takes credit for Veterans Choice legislation that was actually signed into law by President Obama in 2014 pic.twitter.com/NPjNdhDHQ2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 8, 2020
After the signing of multiple executive orders, Trump took a few questions from reporters.
When he was asked by Paula Reid of CBS News why he continues to claim responsibility for the Obama administration program, Trump abruptly ended the presser and thanked reporters before walking away from the podium to the Village People’s “Macho Man.”
“Mr. President, why do you keep saying that you passed Veterans Choice? You said you passed Veteran’s Choice. It was passed in 2014, but it was a false statement, sir,” Reid can be heard telling the president before he turned to leave.
Moments before, Trump was also called out for claiming he never said that he is expecting “legal challenges” to his executive orders, a claim reporters noted he made a day earlier. Another reporter challenged Trump on whether his executive orders were “just political theater” that would be “giving people false hope.”
Trump gets frustrated when @PaulaReidCBS won't stop trying to ask him a question about why he keeps lying about Veterans Choice, then abruptly ends the news conference as "YMCA" plays pic.twitter.com/Z3uVxebKGH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 8, 2020
And after @PaulaReidCBS asks him why he keeps lying about passing Veterans Choice, the President promptly walks out…
— Jonathan Franks (@jonfranks) August 8, 2020
EVERY TIME Trump gets a remotely difficult question or pushback, he bails. How can you spend money? Where do you get the authority? What you are saying is false. And then curtains.
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) August 8, 2020
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