President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump endorses former White House physician Ronny Jackson for Congress Newly released emails reveal officials’ panic over loss of credibility after Trump’s Dorian claims Lindsey Graham thanks Trump, bemoans ‘never-ending bull—-‘ at South Carolina rally  MORE on Friday hammered the news media and Democrats, accusing them of unfairly criticizing his response to the coronavirus.

Trump, speaking at a campaign rally in South Carolina shortly after a new case of the disease was reported in California, spent a significant amount of time discussing his administration’s handling of the virus.

He vacillated between remaining on script to project confidence in the government’s ability to contain the coronavirus domestically and veering off-script to slam the news media and Democrats over the issue.

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“The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” he told the crowd in North Charleston.

“One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well,” Trump said. “They tried the impeachment hoax.” 

“This is their new hoax,” he said, apparently referring to Democrats’ criticism of the official coronavirus response.

Trump, who opened the rally by declaring the “fake news just doesn’t get it,” accused the press of being “in hysteria mode” in its coverage of the virus.

The president’s criticisms at Friday’s rally reflected a broader White House effort to blame Democrats and the news media for some of the fallout of the virus.

Acting chief of staff Mick MulvaneyJohn (Mick) Michael MulvaneyTrump hits Democrats over coronavirus criticism: ‘This is their new hoax’ Overnight Health Care — Presented by American Health Care Association — Dems ‘frustrated’ by coronavirus response after briefing | Mulvaney claims press covering outbreak to take Trump down | Pence bolsters task force On The Money: Stocks have worst week in a decade on coronavirus fears | Fed chief hints at rate cut | Trump pushes central bank for action | Kudlow advises investors to ‘think about buying the dip’ MORE earlier Friday claimed the press was seeking to use the virus to harm Trump, while Donald Trump Jr. claimed on Fox News that Democrats are hoping coronavirus “kills millions of people” so it ends the president’s “streak of winning.”

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That commentary comes a day after Vice President Pence, who is leading the administration’s response efforts, urged lawmakers to put politics aside in addressing the coronavirus. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are also in the middle of bipartisan negotiations to secure supplemental funding to combat the virus.

Trump on Friday pointed to his weeks-old decision to curb travel from certain infected areas and repeatedly cited the fact that no Americans have died of the coronavirus, though new cases are being reported in the country and the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier in the day raised its risk assessment of the disease to “very high.”

“We have to take it very, very seriously,” he said. “We are preparing for the worst.”

The president sought to assure the crowd that he was taking the matter seriously and was prepared to adapt if necessary.

“Two weeks ago, who would’ve thought this could be going on” Trump said. “But things happen in life, and you have to be prepared and you have to be flexible.” 

The Trump administration has in recent days sought to project a more unified front in responding to the disease.

Trump on Wednesday tasked Pence with leading the government response, and the vice president in turn named career health official and State Department appointee Deborah Birx to coordinate the White House response.

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The former Tottenham midfielder believes the right man is at the helm in north London, with the Portuguese having been unlucky with injuries

Jose Mourinho remains a “fantastic manager” and Tottenham will have no problem attracting top players in the summer because “many” still want to play for the proven Portuguese coach, says Michael Brown.

Questions have been asked of the man calling the shots in north London over recent weeks, with some suggesting that his powers are on the wane.

Former Spurs midfielder Brown is not buying that, telling Goal of the former Chelsea and Manchester United boss: “He’s a fantastic manager. He has a great record.

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With only a day left for Greece to produce a financial rescue proposal, a Greek exit from the eurozone has never been more likely, prompting the European Commission and economists to game out what exactly it would look like.

Probably the best analysis was a 189-page work by Roger Bootle of Capital Economics, which won them the 2012 Wolfson Prize, the second-highest award for economists after the Nobel Memorial Prize.

Events have moved on a bit since 2012, but the conclusion still stands: Leaving the euro is doable.

One original recommendation was to do it all in secret, but that obviously won’t work. The next step is to bring in capital controls and close banks, something that Greece has already done.

While capital controls would stop money from fleeing Greece, the newly-empowered Greek central bank would have to provide liquidity to Greece’s banks — now without having to ask permission from the European Central Bank.

Once drachmas are back in circulation, Capital Economics estimates that they would need to drop in value by about a fifth in order to restore Greek competitiveness, “although some overshoot still seems likely due to initial uncertainty.”

A key issue will be what happens to Greece’s €323 billion in debt, most of it now owed to fellow EU governments and not to the private sector after a partial default in 2012.

The original recommendation was that Greece default on about half of its debt, but that is now more problematic because doing so would poison Greece’s relations with the rest of the EU. That means it would make sense to negotiate a write-down.

Another difference from 2012 is that years of austerity have actually improved Greece’s fiscal picture. Until this year’s recession, Greece was even running a surplus. After leaving the euro, the resulting downturn would probably mean a short-lived deficit, but in the end Greece might be able to finance itself after a Grexit.

In the end, Capital Economics argues that the result would be positive for Greece.

“Careful management of an exit that we still see as inevitable could yet mean that it ends up as a favorable economic development for both Greece and the rest of the eurozone,” it says.