You know President Biden is a disaster when even ABC chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl goes on television to criticize you. On Sunday's This Week, during the "Powerhouse Roundtable", Karl leveled the kind of harsh criticism at Biden that you would only see against Republicans.
When Anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Karl if he believes Biden's shift in strategy to deal with the ongoing COVID pandemic meant that it should be treated as a "new normal", Karl launched into a rant against Biden's mishandling of the pandemic:
President Biden came into office with this being his top priority. He was going to take on the pandemic. He was going to defeat the pandemic. It was the area for the first months of the Biden presidency where he had the highest approval rating. And when you look at where we are now, you know, and obviously the pandemic is not under control. That's not Biden's fault. That's a virus that mutated and advanced in ways that have been unpredictable and hard to control. But you’ve had a disaster over-testing, which reminds me of the disaster over-testing that frankly, we had when Trump was President. We've had mixed messaging out of the CDC that has drawn criticism from people like Dr. Jha and other medical experts. He needs to establish a new direction and a new plan for this. And I think realizing he has–that we're all going to be living with a new normal is the first step towards doing that.
Ouch! You rarely hear this kind of blistering criticism of Democrats from the leftist media. After those comments from Karl, Stephanopoulos quickly turned to Associated Press executive editor Julie Pace. There was no pushback from her either, instead, she pointed out how the partisan lines have shifted in dealing with the pandemic. Pace made the point that even Democrats are now tired of the incessant lockdowns:
You know, early in the pandemic you could basically draw a straight line between you know your partisan affiliation and where you fell on COVID restrictions. And now that's really been muddied where you are seeing Democrats who had been much more in favor of tighter restrictions who are starting to, as John said, starting to feel like we have to move forward and try to live with this. They want to keep schools open. They are very skeptical of the need for those really tight lockdowns that we saw earlier.
Stephanopoulos then turned to former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who was perhaps the harshest in his admonishment of Biden for his pandemic blunders stating "to be 22 months into this crisis and to have people waiting online or testing and not be able to get tests after he appropriated $1.9 trillion to try to deal with this when he first came into office is incompetence of a monumental scale."
The left-wing anchor's only refuge from harsh criticism of the Biden administration was former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile who laughably believed Biden's administration is "moving at warp speed" when it comes to vaccine distribution and testing.
While it's clear Brazile is delusional, I have to give credit where it's due to Jon Karl for finally telling the truth about his pals in the Democratic Party. It doesn't happen often but we will take it.
This segment was brought to you by IBM and Vicks. Their information is linked at our Conservatives Fight Back Page.
To read the relevant transcript of this segment click "expand":
This Week
1/9/2022
9:48:24 AM
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: It did seem as if President Biden is edging towards the strategy advocated by Dr. Jha and other medical experts treating this whole pandemic as the new normal.
JON KARL: Absolutely. And the bottom line is he needs a change in strategy, George. You know, President Biden came into office with this being his top priority. He was going to take on the pandemic. He was going to defeat the pandemic. It was the area for the first months of the Biden presidency where he had the highest approval rating. And when you look at where we are now, you know, and obviously the pandemic is not under control. That's not Biden's fault. That's a virus that mutated and advanced in ways that have been unpredictable and hard to control. But you’ve had a disaster over-testing, which reminds me of the disaster over-testing that frankly, we had when Trump was President. We've had mixed messaging out of the CDC that has drawn criticism from people like Dr. Jha and other medical experts. He needs to establish a new direction and a new plan for this. And I think realizing he has–that we're all going to be living with a new normal is the first step towards doing that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And Julie Pace, the partisan lines and the partisan disputes over this have been breaking down as well. We see these disputes between teachers and parents over what to do with schools right now.
JULIE PACE: We are seeing this really remarkable shift. You know, early in the pandemic you could basically draw a straight line between you know your partisan affiliation and where you fell on COVID restrictions. And now that's really been muddied where you are seeing Democrats who had been much more in favor of tighter restrictions who are starting to, as John said, starting to feel like we have to move forward and try to live with this. They want to keep schools open. They are very skeptical of the need for those really tight lockdowns that we saw earlier. And the reality is we are in a different phase. Even as we do see the case numbers on the rise with more people being vaccinated, those cases tend to be milder. We're not seeing the spikes in hospitalizations and deaths. And that has muddied I think the public's willingness to accept a real rollback in their ability to live life as normal.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Chris Christie, is the President moving in the right direction?
CHRIS CHRISTIE: Well he couldn't be more wrong than he's been of late, George. I mean to be 22 months into this crisis and to have people waiting online or testing and not be able to get tests after he appropriated $1.9 trillion to try to deal with this when he first came into office is incompetence of a monumental scale. And so the President better come up with something new to deal with this and a new way of approaching it. But one of the ways would be how about getting competent on testing? Because that's a key part of the strategy of moving forward here and trying to keep people safe, is to keep people appraised of their status to try to lesson the spread of Omicron, which is obviously a much more contagious strain than some of the other strains that we've had, certainly the Delta strain. You know, that's Joe Biden's first problem. His second problem is that he's dealing in a situation now where he has set extraordinarily high expectations. He was going to defeat the virus. It was the wrong way to go about this from the beginning. He oversold on the vaccines. It was never that the vaccines were going to prevent you from getting COVID. It was going to prevent you from being hospitalized or from dying from COVID. So he set too high an expectation. He's now not hit that mark. He’s failed on testing. He needs a new story, George, and he needs one fast.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is that fair criticism, Donna?
DONNA BRAZILE: Of course not. George, look, more Americans are being vaccinated each and every day. That is a personal responsibility we should all support. The more people who are vaccinated as governor Christie correctly said, the less strain on our hospitals and the less strains on our economy and our school system. Look, I think the administration is moving at warp speed, something that President Trump signaled when we started getting these vaccines created. So it's important that the American people, along with Governors and state public health officials continue to encourage vaccines, boosters for those who are age appropriate to get them, to provide these testing kits that I hope will be delivered to every American. Teach them how to use it so that we can stop the spread of this virus. That is our number one goal. We are in a public health emergency. And I recognize the politics is all around this virus. But as someone who served on the local Coronavirus task force in the beginning, we knew that we had to follow some simple steps in order to protect everyone. And that is wear a mask. There’s nothing wrong with wearing a mask. Get an appropriate one. And secondly, we have to protect others by getting this vaccine. I’m going to continue to stress. Get vaccinated. Get boosted. It won't harm you. Trust me. Look at me. I'm feeling good.
