Journalist Brit Hume worked for 23 years with ABC News before becoming anchor and managing editor of “Special Report” on Fox News. During his time with ABC, Hume served as chief White House correspondent from 1989 to 1996, so he knows a thing or two about covering the President of the United States.

On Friday, Hume weighed in on the heated exchange between NBC correspondent Peter Alexander, who asked what President Trump considered a “nasty question.” Hume responded to a post on Twitter by journalist David French, who wrote, “This was a legitimate question, the response is inexcusable.”

“Legitimate question my a**,” Hume wrote. “It was the kind of bullsh*t gotcha question which hack WH reporters have been asking for decades. But instead of going off on the reporter, Trump should have said the whole briefing in all its particulars was a message to people who are scared,” Hume added.

Legitimate question my a**. It was the kind of bullsh*t gotcha question which hack WH reporters have been asking for decades. But instead of going off on the reporter, Trump should have said the whole briefing in all its particulars was a message to people who are scared. https://t.co/Qg0lYC1fxk — Brit Hume (@brithume) March 20, 2020

On Friday, Alexander asked the president why he was optimistic about a new drug that may be useful in combating the effects of the virus when the situation is so dire.

“What do you say to the Americans who are scared, though, I guess,” Alexander said. “Nearly 200 dead, 14,000 who are sick, millions, as you witnessed, who are scared right now. What do you say to Americans who are watching right now who are scared?”

Said Trump: “I say that you’re a terrible reporter, that’s what I say. I think that’s a very nasty question, and I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people. The American people are looking for answers and they’re looking for hope, and you’re doing sensationalism. Let’s see if it works. It might, and it might not. I happen to feel good about it, but who knows. I’ve been right — a lot. Let’s see what happens.”

“Let me just tell you something, that’s really bad reporting, and you oughta’ get back to reporting instead of sensationalism,” Trump scolded. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Alexander later explained his view of the tiff. “I am sure there are plenty of baseball fans watching right now. In TV terms, we call this a softball. I was trying to provide the president an opportunity to reassure” the public, he said.

Members of the mainstream media rushed to Alexander’s defense.

CNN’s John King, who covered the White House for a decade, said, “It was a perfectly valid question, and what the president did to Peter Alexander was reprehensible. The American people are looking for answers. They do want hope. They do want support, Mr. President. That was a very fair question.”

“This is a Trump trademark,” King said. “It was striking that this came, forgive me, this bullsh** attack, on fake news came just moments after the Secretary of State said that the American people needed to be careful about where they get their information and go to a source they can trust. I get that there [are], at times, disagreements; there are, at times, tension between politicians and reporters. That was a one hundred percent legitimate questions with no hype, no shape, no bias. He just wanted to attack.”

“Asked to perform one of the key duties of the presidency – to reassure the American public during a crisis – Trump instead attacked,” The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker said.

ABC News’ White House correspondent Jonathan Karl added: “It’s outrageous to use the presidential bully pulpit to bully a journalist like Peter – especially at a time like this.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper said: “If the president isn’t capable of leading stably and effectively, he should at least for his own reputation and for the good of the country stop making things worse and consider leaving the podium to others. The Hippocratic Oath – first do not harm – that applies to President Trump, too.”

And MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow went even further. “If Trump is going to keep lying like he has been every day on stuff this important, we should, all of us, stop broadcasting it. Honestly, it’s going to cost lives,” the Maddow Blog posted on Twitter.

Watch the exchange below: