Mick Mulvaney: Media is using coronavirus coverage to ‘take down’ Trump

White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Friday accused the press of only zeroing in on coronavirus now in an effort to “take down” President Trump.

Mulvaney — speaking with Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation at the Conservative Political Action Conference — accused the media of peddling a false narrative about the Trump administration “scrambling” to contain the virus even though the president had briefed Congress with other top health officials six weeks ago, according to The Hill.

Publications were too consumed with Trump’s impeachment — which Mulvaney called a “hoax” — to focus on the snowballing outbreak when they should have been, the chief of staff said.

“Why didn’t you hear about it?” Mulvaney said to the conservative audience. “The press was covering their hoax of the day because they thought it would bring down the president.”

Reporters are paying more attention to the virus now in an attempt to “take down the president,” according to Mulvaney.

“Is it real? It absolutely is real,” Mulvaney said of the deadly virus. “But you saw the president the other day — the flu is real.

“Are you going to see some schools shut down?” he said. “Probably. May you see impacts on public transportation? Sure. We know how to handle this.”

Mulvaney said the now-struggling US stock market — fraught with coronavirus-fueled panic — could make a turnaround if people ignore the press’ hype for a bit.

“What I might do to calm the markets is turn the television off for 24 hours,” the official said.