I would never be so cruel as to suggest reading a transcript of a press conference. I don't know what else was discussed in that press conference, although the URL mentions the PPP, so that's pretty likely.
Ctrl+F is your friend. "Sarcastic" shows up a little over halfway through, and they come back to it at the end. He talks about using disinfectant on hard surfaces, on hands and relates how he directed the doctors who had been briefing him to look into using it internally. He was then directly asked if he was actually encouraging Americans to ingest disinfectant, he said no, that he had only said it sarcastically.
He rambles and uses sentence fragments, and it is easy for apologists to pick words out to either find or deny meanings in a lot of what he said. Apologists like Kayleigh McEnany, who found places in the video where Trump mentioned consulting doctors. Apologists like redpoint5, who correctly points out that the word
bleach is not mentioned in the video.
The problem is that the part of the video that's up everywhere...
Quote:
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...came after William Bryan, a top science official at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), presented research showing that the virus deteriorates more quickly when exposed to sunlight, high temperatures and humidity and said that bleach and isopropyl alcohol each kill the virus within minutes.
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It is factually correct that Trump did not utter the words "drink bleach" on that video. In the context of objective reality, immediately after being briefed on the effectiveness of bleach and alcohol on hard surfaces, Trump said that the doctors should look into whether or not those disinfectants could be used internally as well. Bryan's briefing about the effects of UV light, heat, humidity and the disinfectants bleach and isopropyl alcohol on Covid, isn't included in the briefing because it isn't actual news, it's just background data.
The news that day was was
After being briefed on ways to kill the Coronavirus, Trump directed doctors to study taking bleach internally and the commentary end jumped to
Trump says to drink bleach! The actual news people weren't hiding or twisting anything, and the commentary people were packaging it up even more tightly. But they weren't making it up, and when Trump was called on it, he said
Yeah, but I was just being sarcastic.