For most people, September 11 is a day of remembrance, but for CNN White House correspondent John Harwood, Friday was an opportunity to remember just how bad President Trump is at his job. Appearing on CNN Newsroom, Harwood was led by host Poppy Harlow to explain why Trump's handling of the pandemic is not analogous to Winston Churchill in World War II.
According to Harwood, unlike Churchill, Trump concealed the truth because he wants to get re-elected, "He said he wanted to avoid panic, but the evidence suggests what he wanted to avoid in particular was panic on the financial markets that could threaten the picture he was painting of economic success going in to the election."
He accused Trump of having a "desire to incite panic... about lawlessness in American cities, about the prospect of suburbs being demolished, a whole other range of disasters that he is fabricating, economic collapse." On Trump's Thursday campaign rally, he declared, "Prospects are that people will get sick from that rally and maybe people will die as Herman Cain did after the Tulsa rally."
Then came Harwood's hot take on 9/11, "One thing to point out on the 19th anniversary of 9/11, we are right now in this pandemic, losing twice as many people every week as were lost on 9/11. We can't forgot that toll."
Thankfully, outside of the CNN echo chamber, when Harwood tweeted the same thought, the response was very different from Harlow's, "You're right, we cannot." Speaking of a CNN echo chamber, the urge to compare a virus to 9/11 was continued later in the day when John King made a similar point at the top of the 12:00 hour.
This segment was sponsored by Tempur-Pedic.
Here is a transcript for the September 11 show:
CNN
CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto
9:18 AM ET
POPPY HARLOW: I thought the comparisons he made to Churchill in particular were pretty astonishing.
JOHN HARWOOD: Well, we know, Poppy, that the comparisons don't make any sense. Churchill and FDR both gave their constituents a realistic picture of the struggles ahead in World War II to try to steel them for the necessary sacrifices they needed to make. That's precisely what the president tried to avoid. He said he wanted to avoid panic, but the evidence suggests what he wanted to avoid in particular was panic on the financial markets that could threaten the picture he was painting of economic success going in to the election. We also know that his re-election campaign is grounded in the desire to incite panic among voters, especially among white working class voters in his base, about lawlessness in American cities, about the prospect of suburbs being demolished, a whole other range of disasters that he is fabricating, economic collapse. It's also worth noting that the president continued to mislead Americans by the very fact that he held that rally last night, very little mask wearing. Very little social distancing. Prospects are that people will get sick from that rally and maybe people will die as Herman Cain did after the Tulsa rally. One thing to point out on the 19th anniversary of 9/11, we are right now in this pandemic, losing twice as many people every week as were lost on 9/11. We can't forgot that toll.
HARLOW: You're right, we cannot. John Harwood, thank you very much for the reporting at the white house this morning.
