Liberal White House correspondents squirmed as One America News (OAN) reporter Chanel Rion asked President Donald Trump whether it was alarming that these White House correspondents push propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party.

“Do you consider the term ‘Chinese food’ racist because it’s food that originates in China?” Rion asked. The president, of course, said no.

“On that note, major left-wing news media, even in this room, have teamed up with Chinese Communist Party narratives and they’re claiming you are racist for making these claims about Chinese virus,” Rion responded. “Is it alarming that major media players — just to oppose you — are consistently siding with foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicals, and Latin gangs and cartels, and they work right here at the White House with direct access to you and your team?”

As Rion asked this question, left-leaning reporters at major news outlets turned around to stare at her or looked blankly up from their notes, stunned at the brazen condemnation coming from the OAN reporter.

Trump took the softball and ran with it.

“It amazes me when I read the things that I read,” he said, referencing The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. The president explained that the White House no longer distributes the Times and the Post.

Trump also firmly rejected the idea that there is “chaos in the White House,” saying, “I’m the one telling everybody to be calm.”

“It’s more than fake news, it’s corrupt news,” he concluded.

As for Rion’s statement, it is true that left-leaning media outlets have condemned Trump’s insistence on calling the coronavirus a “Chinese Virus” or the “Wuhan Virus,” claiming these terms are racist. It is also true that the Chinese Communist Party has condemned Trump for using the terms. The Communist Party claims that the coronavirus actually originated in the United States, and it has disputed the fact that the virus originated in China. Trump’s use of the terms is important to set the record straight.

Rather than acknowledging that Trump is pushing back against Chinese propaganda and admitting that legacy media outlets have repeatedly used the terms as well, left-leaning journalists have seized on the terms to slam Trump as racist, echoing the Chinese propaganda.

Rion undoubtedly asked Trump a softball question, but she made an important point. The journalists’ uncomfortable reactions only confirmed their complicity in pushing this Communist Party narrative.

The faces made in the room as @ChanelRion asks Trump: Is it alarming that major media players…are consistently siding with a foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicals, and Latin gangs and cartels and they work right here…with direct access to you and your team? pic.twitter.com/4eW8RHipY5 — Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 19, 2020

Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.