Trump faces credibility test as he plays down virus threat

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump faces a critical challenge in grappling with the new coronavirus outbreak: Asking Americans to believe him after he and top advisers have contradicted federal scientists in playing down the threat.

The stakes could be enormous from a public health and economic perspective, and also for Trump's personal credibility.

As Americans prepare for what experts say is an inevitable outbreak in the U.S., the X-factor may be an unpredictable president who has clashed repeatedly with scientists in his own administration and tends to see any crisis through the lens of his own reelection chances.

After two days of the stock market tumbling , Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to blame the media and Democrats for causing undue alarm and harming American financial markets.

He singled out MSNBC and CNN for “doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible,” and added that ”incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape.”

The president scheduled an evening press conference to address how the administration is handling the virus threat. It's only the second time in his presidency that he's spoken from the podium in the White House briefing room, an effort to underscore to Americans that he has the situation under control and understands the gravity of the outbreak.

In advance, Trump played down the mortality rate for a pathogen that has been confirmed to have killed 2,700 people globally. His top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, echoed Trump’s outlook, saying Tuesday that the U.S. had “contained” the threat of a domestic outbreak.

Trump's and Kudlow’s comments were at odds with warnings from Centers for Disease...