Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis slams 'POC liberal women' for asking 'stupid questions' at White House briefing
President Donald Trump on Monday, May 11, had a clash with two women reporters at a press conference in Rose Garden, White House, and ended the conference abruptly. He was upset after CBS News reporter Wijia Jiang asked him a sharp question on coronavirus testing and countered her saying she should ask her question on Covid-19 deaths to China. The issue took a serious turn since Jiang is a Chinese-American reporter. Trump was also upset with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins who, when asked to put her question, asked Jiang in turn whether she would like to finish off her conversation with the president. Trump denied to take any question from Collins and exited the stage.
That the matter was still far from over became evident when Jenna Ellis, a campaign lawyer representing Trump, tweeted after midnight on Tuesday, May 12, to lash out at the women reporters who challenged the president at a press conference for asking ‘stupid questions’. Ellis, who advised the president during his impeachment trial, referred to the women who confronted the latter as ‘POC liberal women’. Trump lost his composure when Jiang asked him the reason for stressing global competition (the president said the US is leading the coronavirus testing) when the country saw a huge death toll from the virus (more than 82,000 when this article was published).
Ellis attacked the media and defended the president in on Twitter. “This is coronavirus press conference number, what, probably somewhere in the 50s?” Ellis asked, adding: “POC liberal women have been present at every one of them and asked stupid questions. Sometimes for HOURS," she said in one post. She defended Trump in her tweet, saying it was the first time that Trump walked off. “This is the first time he's just walked off. Finally. You know nothing. Stop gaslighting,” she wrote, in an indirect dig made at the women reporters.
POC is a slang word that is used to mean ‘person of color’.
Trump hired Ellis, a staunch conservative
Ellis, a legal adviser to the incumbent’s 2020 re-election campaign, ran a police center at the James Dobson Institute earlier and taught legal studies at Colorado Christian University. Through her writings and talks in public media, she has regularly slammed liberal judges and those backing LGBT rights. Trump roped her in as an adviser after watching her on Fox News, Axios reported.
Ellis also indirectly attacked Jiang in a Facebook post over her countering Trump on why he asked her to put the question to China. She wanted to know if that counter from Trump was specifically meant for her, indicating a racial attack. The evangelical conservative said the reporter’s question deserved such an answer from Trump. “Idiot,” she said, while attaching a right-wing report from The National Pulse.
When Jiang wanted to know from Trump whether he was specifically asking her on China, he replied: “I'm telling you. I'm not saying it specifically to anybody. I'm saying it to anybody that asks a nasty question.” Jiang then protested saying there was nothing ‘nasty’ in her question but Trump chose to ignore her.
Trump lambasted the media in a tweet later on Monday, saying: “The Lamestream Media is truly out of control. Look how they work (conspire!) together. They are the Enemy of the People, but don’t worry, we will WIN in November!”
Jiang, however, thanked Collins and her fellow journalists for the media solidarity that was put up before the combative president.