The media are using President Trump’s comments in March to journalist Bob Woodward about downplaying the coronavirus as their latest desperate attempt to oust him from office. The View opened Thursday’s show with the liberal co-hosts outraged, blaming the President for “mass genocide.” But co-host Meghan McCain pointed out how the media has an agenda against Republicans so if you talk to them you’re guaranteed to “look bad.”
Before this, co-host Joy Behar ranted that President Trump was guilty of “negligent genocide.” She bashed Republicans in Congress as his “enablers” for not commenting on Woodward’s book Rage, where the comments are from, even though it isn’t even out until next week. Sunny Hostin agreed with Behar, calling Trump guilty of “mass genocide”:
I think it's terrifying. I mean if you look at the numbers now given what we know, three out of four people who died from COVID-19 would still be alive. So when Joy says mass genocide, you have 200,000 people dead now, and that falls squarely on this president.
Hostin ended her rant frustrated at nothing seeming to stick to Trump for his supporters to abandon him. McCain explained how it wasn’t just Trump misleading the public, but also the media, health experts and Democrats. She pointed out how the media had a clear anti-Republican agenda so it’s no wonder they have low trust among the public and any Republican who takes an interview with a journalist is being stupid: ”They are the enemy and they are here to make you look bad,” she stated:
[A] new CBS poll came out saying that 60% of the American public distrusts President Trump on the coronavirus, but 65% distrusts the media. There was a period of time where Nancy Pelosi was going to Chinatown saying, come around here. It's racist to close the borders, it’s racist to put a cap on China and it's bad all the way around, but going to the initial point of this Bob Woodward interview, I cannot tell you the levels of insanity and stupidity you have to be in politics to give 18 hours to any journalist on the record, period….They are the enemy and they are here to make you look bad, and the idea they are going to let literally a shark come into the White House, what do you think is going to happen?
As Behar griped the press was “not the enemy,” McCain doubled down: “For a Republican, the media is. I would never let my principle, ever under any circumstances do an on the record interview with someone like Bob Woodward, for a book.”
Later on, McCain and co-host Sara Haines saved some criticism for Woodward himself. McCain slammed his decision to hold onto the tapes from March as journalistic “malpractice.” Haines agreed, comparing it to not telling people there was a fire in the building:
I know at one point Mr. Woodward said that, you know, he had to verify it was all true, but every day people broadcast and they disclaim. ‘We have not verified this with our own independent sources’ or there are tons of disclaimers, but I don't think I could have slept at night knowing this was coming without warning people. Even if there's a fire in a building, you say, go to the exits calmly, but you tell them there's a fire. You don't not tell them. So I find that Bob Woodward is partially responsible as well as anyone else that was privy to this information and didn't speak up.
Haines got pushback from fellow co-host Sunny Hostin, who just wanted to blame Trump and no one else. The two argued, with Hostin insisting Woodward “has to verify” the information before releasing it. Haines disagreed: “People report every day-- all the time every day saying we have not confirmed the truth!”
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Read a partial transcript below:
ABC's The View
09/10/2020MEGHAN MCCAIN: The first part about this when you are talking about enablers, there was a lot of misinformation going around about the virus from the very beginning, and when we were -- Dr. Fauci actually said yesterday he said, quote, “he didn't get any sense trump was distorting anything about the coronavirus.” As a conservative, I am always questioning big government. I'm always questioning our leaders and I think for the most part everyone who works in D.C. is an idiot, and I remember being told that masks are fine, I can travel safely and the coronavirus was no worse than the flu for a long period of time. So there was a lot of misinformation.
I will say that -- I heard that, joy. Let me finish, and then you can talk. I will say right now a new CBS poll came out saying that 60% of the American public distrusts President Trump on the coronavirus, but 65% distrusts the media. There was a period of time where Nancy Pelosi was going to Chinatown saying, come around here. It's racist to close the borders, it’s racist to put a cap on China and it's bad all the way around, but going to the initial point of this Bob Woodward interview, I cannot tell you the levels of insanity and stupidity you have to be in politics to give 18 hours to any journalist on the record, period. If Bob Woodward said, “Hey Meghan, what did you have for breakfast?” I would say, “off the record, Bob, no comment. Then I would call my warroom and I would call my spinroom and I’d say, what does he want, what’s going on and what kind of angle does he have? Because as Republicans, this is almost famous all the time. They are the enemy and they are here to make you look bad, and the idea they are going to let literally a shark come into the White House, what do you think is going to happen?
JOY BEHAR: They're not the enemy.
MCCAIN: For a Republican, the media is. I would never let my principle, ever under any circumstances do an on the record interview with someone like Bob Woodward, for a book.
