MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell labeled the media “evil” for coverage of his remarks at a White House coronavirus press briefing with President Donald Trump.
Appearing on Lou Dobbs’ show on Fox Business Tuesday night, the Bible-quoting executive tore into MSNBC host Chris Hayes, CNN’s Jim Acosta and journalists as a whole.
Hayes had commented that Trump’s daily coronavirus press briefings were counterproductive and “dangerous from a public health perspective” because of the president’s falsehoods and failure to embrace science. The cable host suggested that Trump, by calling on private company executives such as Lindell, was detracting further from the credibility of those briefings.
CNN’s Acosta had similar sentiments, suggesting that presidential briefings about a global pandemic should feature more medical experts and fewer business representatives touting their companies and praising Trump.
“Seems crazy that everyone’s still taking [the press briefings] when you have the MyPillow guy getting up there talking about reading the Bible,” Hayes said, in a clip Dobbs showed to Lindell on air.
“I heard Jim Acosta attack me too, and he was 10 feet from me in the Rose Garden. This is just evil, Lou. This is evil,” Lindell complained.
The CEO defended his comments at Trump’s briefing, arguing that he put out a “message of hope” to the country.
“I’m appalled by the journalists ... I used to think ... are they really that evil? Well, yes they are,” he declared.
Trump invited multiple business executives to speak during Monday’s briefing about their efforts to manufacture or donate medical supplies.
Lindell announced that his bedding company would dedicate 75% of its manufacturing to produce cotton face masks to aid medical supply shortages. He then added something he said he wrote “off the cuff”:
“God gave us grace on Nov. 8, 2016, to change the course we were on,” Lindell said, referring to the date Trump was elected. “God had been taken out of our schools and lives. A nation had turned its back on God.”
He then encouraged Americans to use time spent social distancing at home to read the Bible, and praised the Trump administration and all those “praying daily” as crucial to getting through the pandemic.
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