Monday's White House coronavirus task force briefing featured CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta returning for another shot at President Trump, only to get shellacked for his arrogance.
Noticing immediately who he was calling on, the president almost jokingly said, "Go ahead, let's give it a shot."
The ever-eloquent Acosta proceeded to go after the president by literally quoting back to him several of his past comments on the virus when it was still a developing pandemic:
Sir, what do you say to Americans who are upset with you over the way you downplayed this crisis over the last couple of months? "We have it very much under control in this country," "the coronavirus is very much under control in the USA." "It's going to disappear." "It's like a miracle, it will disappear." March 4: "We have a very small number of people in this country infected." March 10: "We are doing a great job with it. It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away." What do you say to Americans who believe that you got this wrong?
President Trump was tame at first in his response, reinforcing his belief that the virus will eventually go away, that Americans should remain calm and praising the people around him for "doing a great job."
But that's when the president lit into Acosta and his cronies at CNN, saying, "We're going to have a great victory and it's people like you and CNN that say things like that, that it's why people just don't want to listen to CNN anymore. You could ask a normal question."
He added that if he wanted to, he "could cause panic much better than even you" and that if he did, he could make Acosta "look like a minor league player."
Before moving on to an actual reporter, the president put his finishing move on Acosta, "I’m very proud. It’s almost a miracle and it is --- the way it's all come together and instead of asking a nasty, snarky question like that, you should ask a real question and other than that, I'm going to go to somebody else."