The daily briefing wasn't worth the time, Trump said. But he couldn't stay away.

The lure of cameras in the Rose Garden proved too hard to resist. For a president who relishes the spotlight and spends hours a day watching television, the idea of passing on his daily chance to get his message out turned out to be untenable despite his anger over his coverage. And so he was back, defending his handling of the pandemic and promising to reopen the country soon.

The on-again, off-again, on-again session was on the more sedate side of the spectrum seen in the six weeks since the president began commanding a slice of the homebound nation’s viewing attention almost every day right before family quarantine dinners. But even as he talked about the crisis that has killed almost as many Americans as the Vietnam War, Mr. Trump veered off to attack “Sleepy Joe” Biden, complain about being persecuted and make some of his favorite false claims…

“Standing at that podium for more than 30 minutes is kind of like being at a bar after 2 a.m.,” said Ari Fleischer, who was a White House press secretary under President George W. Bush. “All the good stuff has probably happened by now and the only thing left is going to be bad. So get out of the bar — or get off the podium after about 30 minutes.”