Trump defends his rhetoric in 1st TV town hall of ’2

SCRANTON, Pa. — President Donald Trump defended the administration’s response to the coronavirus and his confrontational style of name-calling political opponents as he fielded questions Thursday from select members of the public in his first TV town hall of the 2020 election cycle.

Trump, who regularly calls his top Democratic presidential opponents “Sleepy Joe” and “Crazy Bernie,” was asked whether he could deliver his message without the controversial rhetoric. “When they hit us, we have to hit back. I really feel that,” Trump said in response to the first of two questions about civility. “You can’t turn your cheek.”

Fox News, the president’s favorite network, hosted the live event in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a rare instance where the president answered questions from the public.

The first question, from an undecided voter, was about the administration’s response to the virus. The number of the cases in the U.S. stood at about 200 on Thursday, including 12 deaths — 11 in Washington state and one in California.

“Everybody has to be calm. It’s all going to work out,” Trump said, sounding defensive at times as a pair of Fox News journalists pressed him on the issue. “We hope it doesn’t last too long.”

It was Trump’s first 2020 visit to Pennsylvania, a battleground state he won by about 44,000 votes in 2016. He did particularly well in northeastern Pennsylvania, where Scranton and Wilkes-Barre have long anchored a strong Democratic presence.

The state is home turf to former Vice President Joe Biden, who spent his first 10 years in Scranton before his family moved to Wilmington, Delaware. An electric billboard proclaimed “Scranton is Joe Biden country.”