"The president listened to the recommendation" -- Dr. Fauci begins the April 13 #TrumpPressBriefing by trying to subtly trying to walk back comments he made to Jake Tapper yesterday about how lives could've been saved by an earlier federal coronavirus response

REPORTER: But you said there was federal pushback to taking earlier coronavirus measures. Where did it come from?

FAUCI: "That was the wrong choice of words."

Trump is trying to rewrite history to make people believe he took strong action to fight the coronavirus in January and February. In reality he was saying it would go away on its on as late as February 28.

"I guess I am doing okay because to the best of my knowledge I am the President of the United States" -- Trump is so mad over this New York Times report detailing his slow and disorganized coronavirus response https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-response.html

This is so bonkers. Trump is now playing TV clips back to the media to make it seem as though they were complicit in downplaying the coronavirus.

Straight up North Korea-style propaganda going on right now in the White House briefing room. Get a load of the dramatic music.

Trump is now playing back clips of various governors praising him

Trump played an extended clip of @maggieNYT talking

TRUMP: "Nobody is asking for ventilators." (This is a big, big lie.)

JON KARL: That video looked a bit like a campaign ad. Who put that together for you?

TRUMP: "A group in the office"

KARL: That was produced here in the White House?

TRUMP: "Yeah"

"The caranavirus"

Trump won't admit that he made a single mistake during the course of the coronavirus response. More than 23,000 Americans have now died, more than any other country.

Trump on why he retweeted a #FireFauci tweet: "I retweeted somebody -- I dunno."

TRUMP on ventilators: "[Governors] should have had their own stockpiles ... Many governors were asking for far too many."

Trump argues it would've been absurd for him to consider recommending social distancing before Americans started dying (who wants to try to explain to him what models are for?)

TRUMP: "I saved tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives." (This is only true relative to a scenario where he literally did nothing)

Trump to @PaulaReidCBS, who asked him about the slow federal coronavirus response: "You are so disgraceful ... you know you're a fake."

Trump is now trying to blame Obama for the fact he didn't replenish the national stockpile of ventilators or masks during his first three years in office

TRUMP: "We are close to completing a plan to open our country hopefully even ahead of schedule...our country's going to opened"

Trump then alludes to committee reportedly w/ Jared & Ivanka on it & says members will be comprised of "most successful people in their various fields"

Get a load of Trump swaying around here

REPORTER: In regard to some of your tweets earlier today, what provision in the Constitution gives the president the power to open or close state economies?

TRUMP: "Numerous -- numerous provisions. We can give you a legal brief if you want." (He never named one.)

TRUMP on possibility states won't want to relax social distancing as quick he would like: "The president of the United States calls the shots ... it's a decision for the president ... they can't do anything without the approval of the president."

TRUMP: "When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that's the way it's gotta be. It's total."

. @kaitlancollins: You said when someone is the president, their authority is total. That is not true.

TRUMP: "Okay -- you know what we're going to do? We're going to write up papers on this. It's not gonna be necessary. Because the governors need us one way or the other."

"Enough" -- Trump shushes @kaitlancollins as she tries to question him about his dictatorial statements

Trump takes a leading question from an OAN sycophant who basically asks him if he plans to crack down on Michigan and its Democratic governor

"You'd probably be the last person I'd tell" -- Trump again spars with @PaulaReidCBS

"I support the president's leadership under the national emergency declaration he signed" -- Mike Pence suggests he has no objection to Trump (falsely) characterizing his power as "total"

TRUMP on reports of Chinese aggression in the South China Sea: "We have a relationship with China that, uh, we're not happy with certain things that happened over the last period of time ... we'll be just fine."

TRUMP: "The federal government has absolute power. It has the power. As to whether or not I'll use that power -- we'll see ... I have an absolute right."

Asked about Biden, Trump still tries some H1N1 whataboutism -- even though more people have died in a much more compressed period of time from coronavirus

TRUMP: "We're having a religious leaders committee...you've been seeing what's going on at the churches...we're gonna to have a few committees, & then ultimately we're gonna make decisions & we're gonna make them fairly quickly & I think they're going to be the correct decisions"

Trump closes with some thoughts on his friend Stanley Chera, who died from coronavirus: "He thought we'd do such a good job and he was so happy, and he was very proud of what we have done in this administration. But he was tested positive, & unfortunately he didn't make it."

"The only thing I can tell you is that I will give him the advice based on evidence -- you can tell Dr. Fauci is exasperated with Trump

"I don't want to have anything taken out of context, b/c I already one of those in the last couple days, so I don't want to go through it again. Could things have been done better? Of course" -- Fauci on the Covid response & Trump getting mad at him for pointing out the obvious

The April 13 White House coronavirus task force briefing finally ended -- nearly 3 hours and 15 minutes after its scheduled start time.

Trump's latest coronavirus press briefing began with an epic meltdown and ended with the ramblings of an aspiring dictator https://www.vox.com/2020/4/13/21219966/trump-coronavirus-press-briefing-meltdown-total-control-states-rights