HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Date was a guest on Friday's CNN Newsroom to discuss the news that President Trump has tested positive for COVID-19 and used the opportunity to hype his anti-Trump book and re-write the history of the pandemic.
However, nobody asked Date to do this. Host Jim Sciutto offered up a harsh, but fair criticism of the White House that they did not do enough to inform the press corps that they might have been exposed. "S.V., I just want to ask you, given the lack of a fulsome sharing of information here, but also habits in the White House, do you feel that was unfair to your health, the health of the staff around the president? CNN is reporting that the staff is concerned this morning about this, the White House staff."
Date replied that "It was absolutely unfair," but then launched into historical revisionism. "Beyond us, I mean, you know, I have done articles about this. I have it in my book. Had the president treated this pandemic the way, for example, Angela Merkel did in Germany, we could have as few as 40,000 deaths right now had we taken this seriously."
Date, whose book is not-so subtly titled The Useful Idiot: How Donald Trump Killed the Republican Party with Racism and the Rest of Us with Coronavirus, did not say how he pulled this 40,000 number out of the air. Even a simplistic dividing of current deaths (roughly 208,000) by four to account for population differences with Germany comes out to over 50,000.
Furthermore, the same media that spent all morning telling viewers Trump is at higher risk because he is obese, did not mention that the U.S. has an obesity rate more than twice that of Germany.
Still, Date, who is not a scientist but who tries to play one on TV, continued, "We didn't take it seriously largely because the president of the United States didn't take it seriously."
This is the same Huffington Post "news hound" who hectored President Trump in August: “Mr. President, after three and a half years, do you regret at all, all the lying you’ve done to the American people?” He knows what CNN likes!
Sciutto's co-host Poppy Harlow concluded the segment by asking Washington Post assistant editor David Swerdlick, "very briefly before we go, in what way do you believe that this most upends the next 32 days?"
Swerdlick also took the opportunity to condemn Trump's record, "The president came out on March 11th and said all of the right things in an Oval Office address and then for the six months that followed didn't follow through on those right things."
Speaking of March, at the end of that month the actual scientists projected 100,000-240,000 COVID deaths if strict social distancing guidelines were adhered to, not 40,000 and 208,000 is obviously still in that range even as states have started to re-open.
This segment was sponsored by Liberty Mutual.
Here is a transcript for the October 2 show:
CNN
CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto
9:27 AM ET
JIM SCIUTTO: S.V., I just want to ask you, given the lack of a fulsome sharing of information here, but also habits in the White House, do you feel that was unfair to your health, the health of the staff around the president? CNN is reporting that the staff is concerned this morning about this, the White House staff.
S.V. DATE: It was absolutely unfair. Beyond us, I mean, you know, I have done articles about this. I have it in my book. Had the president treated this pandemic the way, for example, Angela Merkel did in Germany, we could have as few as 40,000 deaths right now had we taken this seriously. We didn't take it seriously largely because the president of the United States didn't take it seriously. This continues to this day. We didn't find out until it was leaked and people reported about this. We didn't get an adviser from the White House. I didn't get a call, hey, Mark Meadows came back, he was around Hope Hicks, maybe you should get tested and none of that. So here we are.
POPPY HARLOW: David, very briefly before we go, in what way do you believe that this most upends the next 32 days?
DAVID SWERDLICK: Well, I think everybody is going to have to look to the administration on whether or not they're more forthcoming, both about the events of the last 24 or 36 hours and if they're ever going to take the pandemic more seriously. The president came out on March 11th and said all of the right things in an Oval Office address and then for the six months that followed didn't follow through on those right things. You know, it's anybody's guess whether they will change tune in the next month, but either way, President Trump is the president until at least January 20th at noon and every day people's lives are in the balance.
