At Sunday's White House coronavirus task force briefing, CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond pressed President Donald Trump on why he is showing news clips praising his administration's leadership rather than address rising unemployment numbers and an increasing death toll. "Today we hit the grim milestone of more than 40,000 Americans now having died from the coronavirus. Can you explain then why you come out here and you are reading clips and--and showing clips of praise for you and for your administration? Is this really the time for insulting trip congratulations?" the reporter asked. "Well, I will tell you this, what I'm doing is I'm standing up for the men and women that have done such an incredible job," Trump responded. "Not for me, for the men and women, admirals, Vice President, if I might, but all of the men and women. Thousands, tens of thousands of them that build hospitals in New York and New Jersey and all over this country in record time. They'd throw up 1000 beds in 4 days. I'm sticking up for those people. Those people have been incredible. I'm also sticking up for doctors and nurses and military doctors and nurses." "But the clips that you played and what you read earlier was praising you and your administration. Why is now the moment to do that? On the day more than 40,000 Americans have now died?" the reporter asked. "Those people have been just absolutely excoriated by some of the fake news like you. You're CNN. You're fake news. And let me just tell you, they were excoriated by people like you that don't know any better because you don't have the brains you were born with. You should be praising the people that have done a good job, not doing what you do," Trump trashed the reporter. "Look, you're never going to treat me fairly, many of you and I understand that," the president said. "I got here with the worst, most unfair press treatment they say in the history of the United States for a president. They did say Abraham Lincoln had very bad treatment." The full exchange: <blockquote>QUESTION: Mr. President, 22--more than 22 million Americans are currently unemployed as a result of this. Today we hit the grim milestone of more than 40,000 Americans now having died from the coronavirus. Can you explain then why you come out here and you are reading clips and--and showing clips of praise for you and for your administration? Is this really the time for self-congratulations? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I will tell you this, what I'm doing is I'm standing up for the men and women that have done such an incredible job. Not for me, for the men and women, admirals, Vice President, if I might, but all of the men and women. Thousands, tens of thousands of them that build hospitals in New York and New Jersey and all over this country in record time. They'd throw up 1000 beds in 4 days. I'm sticking up for those people. Those people have been incredible. I'm also sticking up for doctors and nurses and military doctors and nurses-- QUESTION: --But the clips that you played and what you read earlier was praising you and your administration-- TRUMP: --All I played today was Governor Cuomo-- QUESTION: --Why is now the moment to do that-- TRUMP: --Saying very positive things about the job the federal government has done-- QUESTION: --On the day more than 40,000 Americans have now died-- TRUMP: --And those people--those people have been just absolutely excoriated by some of the fake news like you. You're CNN. You're fake news. And let me just tell you, they were excoriated by people like you that don't know any better because you don't have the brains you were born with. You should be praising the people that have done a good job, not doing what you do. Even that question. So just so you understand-- QUESTION: --The question is why now, sir-- TRUMP: --If we didn't do it well a job-- QUESTION: --The question is why now. Not why are you doing it, but why now. TRUMP: I'll tell you why now. Are you ready? Because these people are right now in hospitals. It's dangerous. It's going to a battlefield and I want these people--I want you-- QUESTION: --This wasn't-- TRUMP: --Yeah, it's all about that-- QUESTION: --This is about you and your administration-- TRUMP: --It's not about me. No, nothing is about me-- QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) TRUMP: Look, you're never going to treat me fairly, many of you and I understand that. I don't even know--I got here with the worst, most unfair press treatment they say in the history of the United States for a president. They did say Abraham Lincoln had very bad treatment-- QUESTION: (--INAUDIBLE--) TRUMP: --Let me just tell you-- QUESTION: --Has your name in it. It talks about Trump remaking the playbook-- TRUMP: --Well, that's a positive thing because that's an extra exercise in how do you do it and what to do and that's good for the future. People can learn from that but I want the men and women of this country that are in danger, the admirals and the generals that have done a job like they've never done before--there in war. We are in war. You know, I call it the invisible enemy. That's a war and it's a dangerous war. We are also at a level, when you say 40,000 people, and you're right, almost 40,000 people and-- QUESTION: --More than-- TRUMP: --And--and--oh, more then. Okay, good. Correct me. Correct me QUESTION: 41,000. 41,000. TRUMP: Good. Well, I'm really led you corrected me, CNN. But here's--here's the story. Let me just tell you this now. If we didn't do what we did, the 40,000 right now could be 1 million people. It could be a million people, not 40,000. It could be 1 million. We are tracking at much less than the lowest possible estimate, and that's a great tribute to a number of people and a number of things. One of the things that is a tribute to is what's taken place in this country with the American people because they've gone inside, they've done it. They've done a job that nobody thought was possible. And in fact, when they did the models, as they call them, nobody thought it was possible. They did models not based on this kind of success. I've seen New York streets and I see it in the morning. I've watched all my life New York streets and you can't even see the pavement there's so many people. And you take a look this morning, you take a look even on Friday morning, I looked at it and I saw through a camera. There wasn't a person on Fifth Avenue. There wasn't a person on Madison Avenue. I've never seen anything like it because people have really listened to instructions and they listened to what we've had to say and the professionals, they've listened. And those people--people should really give them a lot of credit, including people like you because you just don't have the sense to understand what's going on all right. Yeah, please. Go ahead. </blockquote>