CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta said Wednesday night that President Donald Trump’s address from the Oval Office about the coronavirus pandemic smacked of “xenophobia,” because he referred to the COVID-19 as a “foreign virus.”

Acosta said, “The other thing, Chris, that we should point out, at one point during the address the president referred to the coronavirus as a ‘foreign virus.’ That is interesting because I was talking to sources this evening, one of the points that the president wanted to make tonight, wanted to get across to Americans, is that this virus did not start here. But that they are dealing with it.”

He continued, “Why the president would go as far as to describe it as a foreign virus, that is something we’ll also be asking questions about. But it should be pointed out that Stephen Miller, who is an immigration hardliner who advises the president, is one of the top domestic policy advisers and s, was a driving force in writing this speech.”

He added, “I think it is going to come across to a lot of Americans as smacking of xenophobia to use that kind of term in this speech.”

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