US President Donald Trump suddenly interrupted a press conference on the coronavirus in the White House after a quarrel with a CBS journalist.
An employee of the CBS News television channel asked Trump the question of why he sees the rivalry of world powers in testing for coronavirus, while Americans continue to die and new cases of infection are observed daily.
“Perhaps you should ask China this question,” Trump replied to an Asian media spokeswoman. “Don't ask me, ask China, okay?”
The outraged journalist asked why Trump spoke about China to her. To this, the owner of the White House said that his words were addressed to everyone who "asks nasty questions." Then Trump quickly wanted to give the floor to a journalist from another media outlet, but she decided to let her colleague finish. After the skirmish, Trump lost his patience and said goodbye to the press, without answering the question.
- “Ask China”: Trump was rude to a journalist because of a question about coronavirus
Many condemned the behavior of the American leader, as Senator Bernie Sanders called the dialogue “rather pathetic,” and Trump himself “a coward who breaks others to feel omnipotent.”
The Trump administration too often came up against criticism because few coronavirus tests were conducted in the United States at the start of the epidemic, Russian experts recall.
“America lagged far behind the dynamics of population testing from other countries that also suffered from the epidemic, including China, South Korea and other European countries,” said Malek Dudakov, an American political scientist.
Before the described situation, Trump managed to answer several other questions, including: he explained the reason why he does not require everyone in the White House to wear masks. According to the president, he just keeps everyone at a distance from himself.
Speaking about China, Trump said that he was not interested in new negotiations and did not intend to discuss the terms of the deal.
Earlier, The Associated Press reported that dozens of Americans and several companies in the United States are trying to sue China for the spread of coronavirus. According to the media, at least nine lawsuits have been filed in the United States against the PRC. The claim is that the Chinese authorities allegedly did not do enough to initially eliminate the virus, and also tried to hide what was happening in Wuhan.
It is noted that the plaintiffs have to circumvent the restriction in US law, according to which foreign governments cannot be held accountable in the states. However, the lawyers who filed the lawsuits claim they can prove the existence of exceptions.
Earlier, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States allegedly has evidence of the origin of coronavirus from a laboratory in Wuhan. He also accused Beijing of concealing the facts. At the same time, the head of the Department of State did not provide any evidence.
“Generally speaking, lawsuits against foreign states are banned in America,” says political analyst and American analyst Dmitry Drobnitsky in an interview with RT.
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“There is relevant evidence that has been updated several times. And, in general, it is called "On Foreign Sovereign Immunity." But exceptions for this are made by special laws that are passed by Congress, ”the expert explained.
Drobnitsky compared the current situation with the circumstances that prevailed in 2016, when a special law was adopted against Saudi Arabia, regarding the September 11 attacks. The expert noted that all the lawsuits filed then "remained in court." “Because even for an American court that would gladly condemn a foreign state, it is nevertheless required to take certain measures,” the political scientist notes, “namely, it is necessary to connect the criminal negligence of a foreign state directly with the deaths in the United States and material damage. That is, natural phenomena, force majeure, accidents, etc. should be excluded from consideration. And this is extremely difficult to do. "
In March, the US president already accused Beijing of not informing the world community about the outbreak of coronavirus.
Also on May 2, an Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph published material stating that China allegedly intentionally hid and destroyed evidence of an outbreak of coronavirus infection in the country. In their article, journalists referred to a report of the so-called intelligence agency The Five Eyes, which was at their disposal.
However, all the arguments of The Daily Telegraph about the "guilt" of China in the spread of coronavirus have not been confirmed. The document, which was at the disposal of journalists, was received by the publication through unofficial channels, it was not possible to verify its authenticity. The newspaper did not contain any links to the original document, or even snapshots of its pages.
In turn, the PRC authorities released a document refuting rumors circulated by the United States regarding China's role in the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The material is published on the website of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and contains 24 points - in each of them the authors of the document analyze and refute myths and false accusations against Beijing in detail.
The head of the HSE School of Oriental Studies, Alexei Maslov, expressed RT opinion that China will now seek evidence that the United States is also largely guilty of the spread of coronavirus and, most importantly, that they funded the various laboratories that studied COVID-19.
“That is, what’s called a war of incriminating evidence will begin,” the political scientist notes.