Joy Behar Lies About Reagan's AIDS Record During Her HLN Elizabeth Taylor Tribute
It might have been expected that the death of movie star and AIDS activist Elizabeth Taylor might be an occasion for liberal sniping. Unsurprisingly, it came from Joy Behar on her CNN Headline News show Wednesday night, recirculating the complete myth that Ronald Reagan didn't care about AIDS, and couldn't utter the name of the disease for years:
BEHAR: She didn't like Ronald Reagan's politics. She knew the Reagans and she was friends with them, I think, but she didn't like his politics. And here is the reason, I think, because as the AIDS crisis began in 1981, and Reagan couldn't even say the word "AIDS" until 1987, after 40,000 people had died from the disease. Do you think that possibly, either one of you, do you think that possibly Elizabeth forced his hand to actually speak about it eventually? Did she have anything to do with that, Barry?
MANILOW: Could be. Could be. Like I say, she was on a mission. I don't think anything was going to stop her.
BEHAR: Yes. What do you think, Kenneth?
COLE: I know that he must have -- at a certain point, he felt he needed to address this publicly, and the sentiment was changing. And the at-risk community was growing significantly larger. But AmFAR [the American Foundation for AIDS Research] was formed in '85, and it was the coming together of the National AIDS Research Foundation, which was started by Elizabeth in Los Angeles, and Mathilde Krim had the AIDS Medical Foundation in New York, came together and formed AmFAR in 1985. And it becomes very public, very vocal. And then '87, actually, at an AMFAR event, Ronald Reagan talks about AIDS for the first time.
Wrong. As Brent Bozell wrote in 2004 to correct myths in the days after Reagan died,
Any reporter who bothered to check facts would find that Reagan discussed AIDS funding in a 1985 press conference, just for starters. But let’s turn that around on the rest of Washington. Does that mean no reporter asked Reagan about AIDS in the 1984 presidential debates? And that every interview President Reagan granted to a national or local media outlet failed to solicit Reagan’s opinions on AIDS until 1985? Using this phony-baloney spin line – that federal policy hinges exclusively on the presidential bully pulpit – is an exercise in liberal hyperbole over hard data.
AIDS funding skyrocketed in the 1980s, almost doubling each year from 1983 – when the media started blaring headlines – from $44 million to $103 million, $205 million, $508 million, $922 million, and then $1.6 billion in 1988. Reagan’s secretary of Health and Human Services in1983, Margaret Heckler, declared AIDS her department’s "number one priority." While the House of Representatives was Democrat-dominated throughout the 1980s, which Democrats would quickly explain was the source of that skyrocketing AIDS funding, Reagan clearly signed the spending bills that funded the war on AIDS.
In fact, neither President Reagan nor Vice President Bush was asked about AIDS in the fall debates of 1984. In the first debate on October 7, 1984, Diane Sawyer (then of CBS) even pressed Democrat nominee Walter Mondale "What remaining question would you most like to see your opponent forced to answer?" He didn't ask about AIDS either, but about the deficit.
- Tim Graham's blog
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Comments
"Joy Behar Lies.....
Submitted by almostacowboy on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 10:52am.
...Again".
Like most pathological liars, she will tell a lie to her detriment when the truth would have actually been more beneficial.
Progressivism truly is a mental illness.
Yep
Submitted by IgnatzJFahrquar on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 12:46pm.
They could have stopped the title after the first 3 words.
probably NOT a lie...
Submitted by wizardjr on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 11:03am.
just willful ignorance and stupidity
This silly cow could have fact checkers generating reams of stuff for her and her cronies but either uses True Believers or dispenses altogether with it (the one I vote for).
Joy Blowhard, the babbling bimbo of bombastic BS who will never be confused by facts or logic - she just ignores 'em, too much trouble don't ya know.
Fact checking...
Submitted by shooter on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 11:25am.
Her fact checkers probably log on to HuffPo or Daily Kos for "research."
_________________________________________
"An armed society is a polite society" -- Robert A. Heinlein
Once Again
Submitted by Lord-come-soon-... on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 11:19am.
Joy Behar opens her mouth and proves she is absolutely the stupidest woman on television. Running a close second, Chrissy Matthews.
Can you imagine the
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 11:30am.
offspring from those two?
Please...I'm eating here.
Submitted by Beukeboom on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 12:49pm.
Please...I'm trying to eat.
You mean the quiet
Submitted by mdgiles on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 8:06pm.
You mean the quiet conservative kid, who's really embarrassed by his parents?
Behar's lost...Utterly lost
Submitted by Hologram5 on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 11:23am.
And here is the reason, I think, because as the AIDS crisis began in 1981, and Reagan couldn't even say the word "AIDS" until 1987, after 40,000 people had died from the disease.
She admits in her statement that she hasn't a clue in the words of, "I think". That's her entire problem, she tries to "think" and can't do it logically. Fools like her and her ilk will be the first to go when the civil discourse comes to bloodshed. I say this with great hesitation but my gut feeling has been right too many times to ignore.
Thinking requires a
Submitted by Beukeboom on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 12:50pm.
Thinking requires a functioning brain. Something Behar lacks.
It was Behar's comrades that
Submitted by kg on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 12:59pm.
It was Behar's comrades that cared so much about AIDS they made sure that when it was proposed to quarantine AIDS victims (less than 200 cases) it would violate their Constitutional rights. In other words she and her pals allowed the virus to spread and take countless lives with no consequences.
"DumbAssity of Dope"
"Stand Up For Gay Corpuscles"
Submitted by SickofLibs on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 1:09pm.
Behar (along with Kerry and 15 other libtard Senators - you can guess who they are), also believes it is discriminatory for the FDA to forbid gays from donating blood.
If Joy Behar wants to hate someone - then it should be Clinton
Submitted by Gary Hall on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 11:28am.
If Joy Behar wants to hate someone - then it should be Bill Clinton, not President Reagan.
Let's simply stick to the left side of the isle for this visit back in time.
David Corn, formerly with "The Nation;" now with "Mother Jones," and a regular guest on MSNBC:
Needless to say, it was President Bush who came into office and had the vision to propose, get passed, and implement his massive PEPFAR program (initial budget was $15 billion); this most successful effort is credited with saving millions of lives.
Bob Geldof, the well known liberal activist and Live Aid founder, who had previously said of President Clinton, while praising President Bush:
Aids activist Lord Alli, followed up Geldof's view with:
In 2008, Bob Geldof, was summarizing the accomplishments of the Bush record, compliments of the Washington Times:
No, they were paying attention; they simply hate Republicans and live by their standards of censoring all that's good, when it's done by Republicans.
I think that Bob Geldof might be considered an honorary member of NB, for nailing the press on that one.
(;~> gary
"I think"
Submitted by drydino on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 11:29am.
The funniest, and most absurd, part of that quote is Joy using the term "I think"
Tim, you forgot "motherbelt's axiom."
Submitted by motherbelt on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 11:56am.
Liberals know the truth. The facts are a cover-up.
Twenty years ago, an ignorant
Submitted by Jack Bauer on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 11:58am.
Twenty years ago, an ignorant doofus like Behar could open her yap hole on national TV and spew out any supposed "fact" and it would be left unchallenged as gospel.
You'd be yelling at the TV THAT'S A FRACKIN' LIE BEHAR - and that's as far as it goes.
You can't fight City Hall TV.
But now... 200 ways till Sunday, it will be picked up and challenged.
All of the above Mr Obama? --- How about ALL OF THE BELOW, instead.
She's a dunce
Submitted by grovqui on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 4:37pm.
but to claim Reagan didn't make a statement on AIDS because he was never asked is a really bad excuse. talk about spin!
Talk about spin
Submitted by ckc1227 on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 4:50pm.
He didn't say Reagan didn't make a statement on AIDs because he was never asked. He was actually making a point, which apparently went right over your head.
Randi Rhodes - same comments
Submitted by takodalove on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 4:54pm.
Randi Rhodes was using the same Reagan story on her radio program yesterday. I guess if you say something enough it eventually will be believed as the truth!
C'mon, you think any of these IDIOT libocommies ever
Submitted by ConservaSerb on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 5:18pm.
Do even a minute's research to verify their lies? Their idea of "journalism" is to take something they heard while they were performing oral sex on 4 legged animals, and then 10 years later, spew it forth as "truth."
Joey the BeeWhore is as much a journalist as I am a 300 pound prima ballerina.
A wise & frugal government, which shall leave men free 2 regulate their own pursuits of industry & improvement, & shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. T. Jefferson
i reallywish someone had dug up a clip...
Submitted by jarrett.edwards on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 2:39am.
i really wish someone had dug up a clip from when Elisabeth Taylor went on Larry King some years back, it was during Georege W. Bush's time in office. Larry asked her about him, she said she disagreed with somethings he was doing, but she wouldn't do like others in hollywood, cause he was the best President yet, for figting Aids in Africa and globally, if they had played that clip Joy's head would have exploded lol. I remeber it cause I never watched Larry King, but I was flipping through and saw Taylor so I stayed, i found that answer so classy for a hollywood celebrity.
keep talking
Submitted by Orpheus75 on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 11:32am.
The more she speaks, the more stupid she looks. And liberals think that she's so smart and informed because she has a "degree". [actually stated to me on a blog by a lib].
No Joy Here!
Submitted by mojavemark on Fri, 03/25/2011 - 12:13pm.
I learned a long time ago that if you want to take the steam out of someone then just IGNORE them. Every time a conservative media channel runs footage or writes defense pieces they just keep pouring gas on the fire. Take away the fuel and soon the fire goes out. Just ignore these female idiots who's Bra size is bigger than their IQ's! They will fade into obscurity soon enough. BTW does Barbra keep working to have money for plastic work? And Joy, nothing is going to help you! To paraphrase Robin Williams, Joy always looks as though somebody is holding a small turd under her nose!
I don't Joy lied. I think she is too dumb to do some fact
Submitted by VanPastorMan on Sun, 03/27/2011 - 8:31pm.
checking. This article was well written and reasoned out. Good job.
Too lazy.
Submitted by Beukeboom on Sun, 03/27/2011 - 9:39pm.
Too lazy.