Reprinted with permission from Alternet
"Be nice," Trump told her. "Don't be threatening."
She hadn't been threatening at all.
A few weeks ago, she asked him about criticism he has faced for disbanding the National Security Council's pandemic office.
"I just think it's a nasty question," he sneered. He falsely claimed that he didn't do it.
.@Yamiche: You said you don't yet responsibility for any failures, & yet you disbanded the pandemic response team.… https://t.co/ZpdO5g3EMq— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1584131834.0
Of course, Alcindor isn't the only reporter Trump is rude and abrasive toward. Just last week, Trump insulted NBC News' Peter Alexander, calling him a "terrible reporter" after a softball question seeking comforting words for a scared country.
But few reporters seem to stir Trump's ire as frequently as Alcindor. It's notable because, while she does ask tough, fact-based questions, she is extremely polite as soft-spoken. She never gets angry or raises her voice back in response, even as she handles Trump's verbal abuse. In a tweet, she suggested her treatment by the president may be a function of her race, gender, and role as a reporter:
President Trump today at the White House said to me: “Be nice. Don't be threatening.” I’m not the first human bein… https://t.co/TWbMYNzfz4— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche Alcindor) 1585526158.0
Speaking with Pod Save America's Jon Lovett about the treatment, she explained: "The reason why I became a journalist is because Emmett Till, this 14-year-old boy in Mississippi, was killed. And it sparked the Civil Rights Movement. And I am at my heart a civil rights journalist. And I'm at my heart someone who is constantly thinking: We don't have time for foolishness. We don't have time for sideshows. The reason why I'm a reporter is because I really believe vulnerable people in this country don't have a voice. And I think about them every day as I craft my question."
"We don't have time for foolishness. We don't have time for sideshows." — @PBS @NewsHour's @Yamiche on dealing with… https://t.co/Wa23BTXDm2— Pod Save America (@Pod Save America) 1585615616.0