Jonathan Karl of ABC News

For example, at the April 6, 2020 White House coronavirus briefing (link), Karl asked President Trump a weak question about a recent Health and Human Services inspector general report (link). That devolved into Trump doing what he always does: deflecting.

Such exchanges might be entertaining for some, but they won't change any minds. Trump opponents will continue to think he's the worst, and Trump supporters will continue to think he's the best.

And, most importantly, such exchanges won't put Trump under pressure to get more tests, as you can easily see yourself: did last week's similar exchanges force Trump to be better? How about those in the prior weeks? If such exchanges were effective, wouldn't we have more tests?

Instead of always falling into Trump's traps, Karl should have found a major hospital system that's in dire need of Covid-19 tests, then ask something like this:

"XYZ Hospital system in Texas says they need 5,000 Covid-19 tests, but they've only received 100. When will they have the 5,000 they need?"

That's a short, specific question that will really put Trump on the spot. Trump can't deflect it. And, if he says he'll get them the tests next week and doesn't, he'll look bad to his base.

Obviously, to avoid the "GoFundMe Effect" where someone gets more than they need while others get nothing, it's best to cover as many people as possible. Here's a broader question:

"Governor Cuomo says New York City needs 30,000 ventilators, but they only have X number of ventilators. When will they have the 30k ventilators?"

That's a little tricky due to the GOP/Fox story that Cuomo brought on himself, so Karl would have to add in to the question the actual number of working ventilators they have on hand and be able to document it.

As a bonus, if Trump tries to dispute the number of ventilators they have on hand and Karl can show how he's wrong using indisputable figures, he'd make Trump look bad to his base and force him to do better.

Karl is on Twitter at @jonkarl. Tweet him! Urge him to ask tough, tightly-focused questions that Trump can't dance around.

Some people will resist doing that, saying something like, "but I like Jon Karl". Please help Karl do a better job, don't enable him. As discussed above, Karl's spats with Trump have obviously not made Trump do a better job, have they? You can ask him nicely to do a better job if you want.

Whatever you do, please urge Karl and other journalists to really press Trump officials using tough, specific questions they can't deflect. Put all the lives affected by Covid-19 first.

Note

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