#Kellyanne Conway says Trump should resume COVID-19 briefings

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway says President Trump’s approval rating fell because he stopped doing regular coronavirus briefings and that she wants them to return.

Conway told reporters Friday at the White House that “people want to hear from the president of the United States.”

“His approval rating on the pandemic was higher when he was at the podium,” Conway said. “I don’t think anybody needs to be up there for two hours. It can be 20 minutes, 30 minutes. It can be two questions, it can be no questions, respectfully, as long as the information is being delivered.”

Conway, a pollster and Trump’s final 2016 campaign manager, said briefings allowed Trump to explain his administration’s pandemic response and rebut criticism.

“It’s causation not coincidence that the president’s handling of the coronavirus was higher in public opinion when he himself was addressing [it.] There he was with his doctors and everybody was answering questions and presenting information when the news was very dire and very sad,” she said.

Trump’s briefings were must-watch TV in March and April, but ended after Trump mused about using light and disinfectants to cure COVID-19. Some advisers warned that elderly voters appeared to be turned off by clashes with reporters.

This week, Trump gave two lengthy campaign-style addresses from the White House that largely avoided the pandemic while hammering presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on other policies.

Trump’s approval rating is about 42 percent, according to a RealClearPolitics average of recent polls. It was above 47 percent in late March and early April.

Conway is one of Trump’s most aggressive surrogates and sometimes exceeds his own attacks on Democrats.

On Friday, she also slammed New York Mayor Bill de Blasio for “working out and taking the subway and giving restaurant and theater advice, which is so weird, in early March” before his city became the epicenter of the US COVID-19 outbreak.

De Blasio is “a weird guy doing terrible things for the city,” Conway said.

Trump broke with Conway in March when she blamed de Blasio for spreading the virus, saying he had “really gotten to like” de Blasio while working together. Their relationship has since deteriorated, including over de Blasio last week painting “Black Lives Matter” on 5th Avenue outside Trump Tower.