Barr claims media ‘jihad’ against Trump over promotion of anti-malaria drug

Attorney General William Barr late Wednesday claimed that the Washington press corps is on a “jihad” against President Trump over his promotion of an anti-malaria drug to treat the novel coronavirus. 

In an interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, Barr lauded Trump’s response to the outbreak of the virus, saying that the president has been “very statesmanlike” in his efforts to work with governors around the country to address the crisis. 

He railed against the media’s coverage of those efforts, though, arguing that the president has been the target of “snarky, gotcha questions from the White House media pool.” He said that as soon as Trump promoted hydroxychloroquine, the press launched a concerted effort to discredit the drug. 

“The stridency of the partisan attacks on [Trump have] gotten higher and higher,” he said. “The politicization of decisions like hydroxychloroquine, it’s been amazing to me.”

“Before the president said anything about it, there was [a] fair and balanced drug of this very promising drug,” Barr continued. “And the fact that it had such a long track record, the risks were pretty well-known. As soon as Trump said something positive about it, the media’s been on a jihad to discredit the drug.”

Trump has aggressively promoted hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, even as leading health experts warn that not enough is known about the drug’s effects. 

Speaking at a White House briefing earlier this week, the president said that the government stockpiled 29 million hydroxychloroquine pills and suggested that Americans had nothing to lose by taking it. 

“What do you have to lose?” he said. “I’m not looking at it one way or another. But we want to get out of this. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early.”

“What do I know? I’m not a doctor,” he added.