Fox News host Trace Gallagher on Sunday confronted White House spokesperson Alyssa Farah about the decision to hide details about President Donald Trump’s health.
Gallagher spoke to Farrah just minutes after White House Dr. Sean Conley admitted in a briefing that Trump had been put on supplemental oxygen one or more times. But at a press briefing a day earlier, Conley had refused to say whether Trump had used supplemental oxygen.
“There really, truly has been some confusion,” Gallagher noted. “There have been some mixed messaging coming from the White House and coming from the doctors. Why hasn’t the White House come out and just cleared the deck, cleared up all this stuff and said, you know, this is the way it is, this is what happened and given everyone a tick-tock of what happened from the beginning when he was confirmed with coronavirus until today?”
“This is an evolving situation,” Farah replied. “We’re striving to be as transparent as we can for the American public.”
“If the doctor conveyed a level of confidence yesterday, it’s because it was accurate,” she explained. “The day before, things were a little bit more concerning and [Chief of Staff Mark Meadow’s] comments reflected that.”
“Nobody’s saying that the information wasn’t accurate,” Gallagher said of the president’s doctor. “They’re saying he omitted some stuff or he wouldn’t comment on some stuff. And even today, he kind of came out and he acknowledged, well, he was doing that because he was trying to put on a brave face.”
Farah argued that Conley declined to answer questions about the president’s health because he didn’t have all the facts.
Gallagher objected: “He had the facts. He just chose not to share them because he was trying to put on a brave face, an upbeat face as he said it.”
“It’s a common medical practice that you want to convey confidence,” Farah asserted. “You want to raise the spirits of the person you are treating. I know this president. I don’t know that he needs his spirits raised but I think it’s actually a very common medical practice to do that.”
“But is it also a common medical practice to put the proper information out there?” Gallagher pressed. “And to let people make up their own minds?”
“You have our commitment,” Farah said. “We’re going to continue to be transparent and give you all the facts.”
