ABC's Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos got so carried away defending Joe Biden to Vice President Mike Pence this morning, he was caught off guard when the VP hit back on his false statements.
Stephanopoulos began his interview with the Vice President by touting Biden rebuking President Trump last night for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, asking Pence to respond. The VP touted Trump’s earliest measures enacting a travel ban from China, pointing out that Biden had called this “xenophobic” at the time.
He put the hammer down to conclude: “Frankly, if we had done what Joe Biden wanted us to do the losses would have been much more.”
Any criticism of Biden automatically gets fact-checked as false by his sycophants in the media. And that’s exactly what Stephanopoulos attempted to do next, responding with this snark: “He’s actually said he supported that move.” Without taking a breath, the journalist rushed forward with his next question so Pence wouldn’t rebut. But the VP didn’t let him get away with that falsehood and cut back in:
STEPHANOPOULOS: He’s actually said he supported that move. The president said many times --
PENCE: He said he supported it months and months later, George. It was literally after probably everybody in the country recognized the difference that President Trump's leadership made. You know, it's remarkable when you looked at that speech last night, literally everything that Joe Biden said that we should be doing on the coronavirus, President Trump has been doing from very early on. In early February we started a march toward a vaccine...
Stephanopoulos tried again to blame the administration for the virus, saying they had underestimated it, while ignoring how the media and even our own medical experts made what turned out to be wrong predictions early on. But Pence quickly reminded him of that:
STEPHANOPOULOS: ...[A]t a minimum haven't you and the president underestimated the severity of this crisis and is there anything more you could have done?
PENCE: Well, look, I think it's important for all of us to recognize as I think most Americans do that we've all been learning all along the way, you know, on your network in late February and early March there was a minimizing of the threat of the coronavirus...
The former Clinton lackey continued showing he’s still just a stooge for Democrats, repeating Biden’s vague claims about our virus death rate compared to Europe:
STEPHANOPOULOS: If that's all true why is the sustained death rate in the United States so much higher than other developing countries especially the European countries as Joe Biden has pointed out in his speech? We have 5% of the world's population and about 25% of the world's deaths.
It's unclear where Stephanopoulos got this information as the closest match I could find was a CNN report talking about total cases, not fatalities, from June 30.
However Pence rebutted this misleading claim from Stephanopoulos too, touting how the U.S. coronavirus fatality rate is actually lower than many places (such as Italy, Britain and Spain):
PENCE: Well, George, look, the reality is that our mortality rate now with more than 5.5 million cases identified is among the lowest in the world and we're going to continue to work every day to provide the kind of medicines and treatments that reduce that. I'm absolutely convinced in my heart of hearts that we will have lost hundreds of thousands of more Americans but for the strong leadership of president Donald Trump and the cooperation of the American people.
Stephanopoulos spent the remainder of the interview badgering Pence over Trump's objections to universal mail-in voting fraud: (click expand)
STEPHANOPOULOS: President Trump said this week that the only way we'll lose the election is if the election is rigged. Is that what you believe?
... But even Republican Senator leader Mitch McConnell said voting by mail is a, quote, nonexistent problem. So let me ask the question again. Do you believe with the president when he says the only way you'll lose this election is if the election is rigged?
...By definition if Joe Biden wins, it's not a fair election?
This is not the tone Stephanopoulos takes when interviewing Democrats. While Harris was still high up on Biden’s VP shortlist in June, Stephanopoulos only pressed her from the left and didn't try to fact-check her.
Pence didn't take the bait and insisted they would ensure a fair election. He ended the interview by pointing out all things about Democrats and Biden the media won't talk about:
The American people are going to have a choice between a president who's rebuilt our military, revived our economy, appointed conservatives to our courts and stood strong with the men and women of law enforcement versus Joe Biden, the democratic party, overtaken by the radical left that want higher taxes, socialized medicine, open borders, abortion on demand, and spoke not one word in their entire convention about the violence that’s claiming lives across streets and cities across the country. We’re going to lay that choice out and I know the American people will choose four more years of President Donald Trump in the White House.
Stephanopoulos's fumbles apparently didn't make ABC proud either; they hid the pre-recorded interview between reports in the 2nd hour of their show.
ABC's bias for Biden was sponsored by Claritin and Dove. You can tell their advertisers how you feel here.
Read the full interview below:
Good Morning America
8/21/2020
8:10:44-8:17:15AM EST
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: President Trump, Vice President Pence will accept their nominations for re-election next week and earlier this morning I spoke with the vice president about Joe Biden's big night. Mr. Vice President, thank you for joining us this morning.
PENCE: Good morning, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Joe Biden put the COVID crisis at the center of his speech last night. He promised getting control of the virus would be his top priority and said President Trump “failed in his most basic duty to the nation, he failed to protect us when the virus hit.” Your response?
PENCE: I couldn't be more proud of the leadership President Trump has displayed from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, remember, when President Trump took the unprecedented step of suspending all travel from China before we had a single person-to-person transmission of the coronavirus in this country, Joe Biden condemned it. He called it xenophobic and literally for months and months was critical of the president's response and, frankly, if we had done what Joe Biden wanted us to do the losses would have been much more.
STEPHANOPOULOS: He’s actually said he supported that move. The president said many times --
PENCE: He said he supported it months and months later, George. It was literally after probably everybody in the country recognized the difference that President Trump's leadership made. You know, it's remarkable when you looked at that speech last night, literally everything that Joe Biden said that we should be doing on the coronavirus, President Trump has been doing from very early on. In early February we started a march toward a vaccine in record time and while Joe Biden said last night that there will be no miracle cure, we actually believe that it's very likely before the end of this year that we'll have one or more vaccines for the American people and, in fact, we're producing tens of millions of those vaccines right now as soon as the FDA determines one is safe and effective, we're going to have literally millions of doses for the American people
STEPHANOPOULOS: One of the things the vice president said last night he wants mask mandates all over the country. The president has not supported that but the president has also said many times it would never get this bad and back in April you said we'll “largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us by Memorial Day.” More than 75,000 Americans have died since then. At a minimum haven't you and the president underestimated the severity of this crisis and is there anything more you could have done?
PENCE: Well, look, I think it's important for all of us to recognize as I think most Americans do that we've all been learning all along the way, you know, on your network in late February and early March there was a minimizing of the threat of the coronavirus. We were listening to our scientists along the way and, frankly, by Memorial Day, the massive increases in cases and losses in places like New York and New Jersey and Connecticut and elsewhere were largely behind us and many of our best experts thought we might be going into a Summer respite like a seasonal flu which abates in the Summertime. We called on American industry to produce supplies and ventilators, to develop a vaccine, to reinvent testing where today we've done more than 70 million tests in this country. I truly do believe that the way you're seeing cases declining now, the way that we believe will continue to see losses decline in the days ahead, it's a great tribute to the American people, it's a great tribute to our health care workers but if we're going to stay focused on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, but in the days between now and election day, we'll take the case of the American response to this pandemic to the American people.
STEPHANOPOULOS: If that's all true why is the sustained death rate in the United States so much higher than other developing countries especially the European countries as Joe Biden has pointed out in his speech? We have 5% of the world's population and about 25% of the world's deaths.
PENCE: Well, George, look, the reality is that our mortality rate now with more than 5.5 million cases identified is among the lowest in the world and we're going to continue to work every day to provide the kind of medicines and treatments that reduce that. I'm absolutely convinced in my heart of hearts that we will have lost hundreds of thousands of more Americans but for the strong leadership of president Donald Trump and the cooperation of the American people.
STEPHANOPOULOS: President Trump said this week that the only way we'll lose the election is if the election is rigged. Is that what you believe?
PENCE: Look, we're going to take a strong stand for ballot integrity and when you see Democrat politicians and governors around the country advancing what's called universal mail-in balloting, we're going to fight efforts to compromise the integrity of this election with universal mail in voting.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But even Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said voting by mail is a, quote, nonexistent problem. So let me ask the question again. Do you believe with the president when he says the only way you'll lose this election is if the election is rigged?
PENCE: I don't think there's any question that if we have widespread voter fraud which I think universal mail-in voting invites, I mean, I didn't see the majority leader's comment, but I want to agree that absentee balloting is not a problem in America today. Look at Nevada and other states around the country, George, they're literally wanting to mail ballots out to every household in the state without the kind of accountability that's existed in our time honored absentee balloting system.
STEPHANOPOULOS: By definition if Joe Biden wins, it's not a fair election?
PENCE: Well, look, we're going to make sure it's a fair election. The American people are going to have a choice between a president who's rebuilt our military, revived our economy, appointed conservatives to our courts and stood strong with the men and women of law enforcement versus Joe Biden, the democratic party, overtaken by the radical left that want higher taxes, socialized medicine, open borders, abortion on demand, and spoke not one word in their entire convention about the violence that’s claiming lives across streets and cities across the country. We’re going to lay that choice out and I know the American people will choose four more years of President Donald Trump in the White House.
