On Monday's CNN Newsroom, John King and John Harwood teamed up to denounce President Trump's accusation that there's a political reason for Democratic governors being slow in re-opening their states as "preposterous" and "pretty shameless."
King found it remarkable that Trump would tweet these thoughts at the same time as certain administration officials go into self-quarantine, "the president in a way ignoring the issues in his own house, if you will, tweeting this morning about the reopening pace."
After reading a tweet from Trump, King proudly censored himself while declaring, "The president, this is brazen, there are stronger words, saying Democratic governors are going slow, not because their citizens, but because they’re trying to hurt him."
Harwood naturally concurred, "Look, that is disconnected from reality. It is completely preposterous." He then defended the governors:
The governors of the states are trying to protect their people, and by protecting their people, that's how you can reopen the country. What they're asking for is a nationwide testing regime along the lines of what the president benefits from in the White House at this moment. You do not have the capacity, as you indicated at the top of the hour, for Americans to be frequently tested to give them confidence that the workplaces they go into, the shops they go into are going to be safe and until we get some semblance of that kind of testing regime or you get a vaccine or therapeutic that can wipe this thing out, we're going to have this problem.
King wrapped up by asserting, "To question the details, more than fine. To say the governors are doing this for politics is pretty shameless."
Of course, the decision of when and how to re-open is a difficult one. It would just be nice if the King-Harwood standard could be applied to Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis, Brian Kemp, and Kristi Noem as well, instead of decrying them as a bunch of science deniers who would sacrifice their grandmothers in return for making a dollar or proving their pro-Trump credentials.
Here is a transcript for the May 11 show:
CNN
CNN Newsroom
11:04 AM ET
JOHN KING: And yet, John, the president in a way ignoring the issues in his own house, if you will, tweeting this morning about the reopening pace. “The great people of Pennsylvania want their freedom now. They're fully aware of what that entails. The Democrats are moving slowly all over the USA for political purposes. They would wait until November 3rd if it were up to them. Don’t play politics.” The president, this is brazen, there are stronger words, saying Democratic governors are going slow, not because their citizens, but because they’re trying to hurt him.
JOHN HARWOOD: Look, that is disconnected from reality. It is completely preposterous. The governors of the states are trying to protect their people, and by protecting their people, that's how you can reopen the country. What they're asking for is a nationwide testing regime along the lines of what the president benefits from in the White House at this moment. You do not have the capacity, as you indicated at the top of the hour, for Americans to be frequently tested to give them confidence that the workplaces they go into, the shops they go into are going to be safe and until we get some semblance of that kind of testing regime or you get a vaccine or therapeutic that can wipe this thing out, we're going to have this problem.
KING: More than fair to “Is this governor going too fast, is this governor too slow? What about…” To question the details, more than fine. To say the governors are doing this for politics is pretty shameless.
