On Tuesday’s The View, co-host Meghan McCain turned the tables on her co-hosts complaining over a poll showing Republican men weren’t interested in getting one of the COVID-19 vaccines.
While co-host Joy Behar blamed Fox News and conservative media for spreading distrust about the vaccine, her conservative co-host brought up an important point the rest of the panel was ignoring: Kamala Harris and other Democrats spent months leading up to the November election spreading dangerous vaccine misinformation with the media’s help.
After admitting she was personally eager to get the vaccine and resume life as normal, McCain played a video clip of then VP candidate Kamala Harris telling CNN’s Dana Bash in September that she would be hesitant to get the vaccine with Trump as president:
DANA BASH, CNN: Let's just say there's a vaccine that is approved, and even distributed before the election. Would you get it?
KAMALA HARRIS: Well, I think that's going to be an issue for all of us. I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump, and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the -- the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he's talking about. I will not take his word for it.
McCain pointed out how the media praised Harris and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo when they expressed skepticism about getting a vaccine with a Republican administration in office:
MCCAIN: So she's expressing skepticism about the vaccine under the Trump administration. A lot of Republicans I know are expressing skepticism about the vaccine under the Biden administration which is why this has been so dangerous that this has become so politicized. Both sides are equally responsible for this, but the media really lauded her at the time when she said that, and she didn't get nearly as much pushback -- we have people like Andrew Cuomo saying he wouldn't trust the vaccine rollout under Trump…
McCain also called out Dr. Anthony Fauci's partisan mixed messaging, and even President Biden for dividing Americans and causing mistrust: "There have been many, many opportunities to right this wrong including President Biden going on TV and giving credit to President Trump for the help with the rollout of this vaccine which he didn't do," she pointed out.
She is right. Here at NewsBusters, we documented how the media were guilty of doing this very thing they now are complaining about, while President Trump was in office.
In September, the big three networks touted Kamala Harris sowing doubt about the safety of a “Trump vaccine.” The journalists at ABC, NBC and CBS failed to hold the VP candidate accountable for trying to ruin public trust over the important vaccine effort.
In fact, the networks aided Democrats' message you couldn't trust a vaccine with Trump in office. On September 17's GMA, ABC's White House correspondent Cecilia Vega was aghast at the President's correct prediction we’d have a vaccine by end of the year: “Now people in this country are forced to choose whether to believe the President or the nation’s top health experts!” Vega vented. She also touted Joe Biden politicizing the vaccine while Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos claimed Trump was “pressuring” the CDC to come up with an unsafe vaccine in record time: “Can Americans still trust what they're hearing from the CDC?” he asked.
Furthermore, in October and November Stephanopoulos helped Andrew Cuomo spread vaccine panic, during two separate interviews on GMA, even encouraging the governor’s disturbing, partisan plot to stop vaccine distribution in his state. But in December, ABC News did an about face on the safety of this vaccine once it was obvious Biden would be president.
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Read the transcript below:
The View
3/16/2021
MEGHAN MCCAIN: I tweeted last night, I'm happy to get a vaccine live on the show. I do trust science. I trust doctors, and quite frankly I would let them put an iPod nano between my shoulder blades if it means I can get drunk at Caesar's palace again. I trust the doctors, however, I want to show a clip to explain why it's happening with Republicans.
[plays CNN clip]
DANA BASH, CNN: Let's just say there's a vaccine that is approved, and even distributed before the election. Would you get it?
VP KAMALA HARRIS: Well, I think that's going to be an issue for all of us. I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump, and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the -- the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he's talking about. I will not take his word for it.
MCCAIN: So she's expressing skepticism about the vaccine under the Trump administration. A lot of Republicans I know are expressing skepticism about the vaccine under the Biden administration which is why this has been so dangerous that this has become so politicized. Both sides are equally responsible for this, but the media really lauded her at the time when she said that, and she didn't get nearly as much pushback -- we have people like Andrew Cuomo saying he wouldn't trust the vaccine rollout under Trump, and I think Republicans are contrarian by nature. We are built from my very fabric up to question authority and to question big government, and when big government is saying, you have to do X, Y and Z, we're going to question it. I'm going to question it, and I think that there has been a real, real misstep with messaging from people like Dr. Fauci which I know I'm going to get eviscerated for saying this. I don't 100% trust him, and I don't think that he is an unbiased actor in any of this, and he is a government official as Sara pointed out. I'm one of the people that feel that way about him.
There have been many opportunities to right this wrong including President Biden going on TV and giving credit to President Trump for the help with the rollout of this vaccine which he didn't do. Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson didn't just switch teams. I too am worried, but I think it's way more than 41%, and I hope I'm not offending all of you by telling you where I think Republicans are at on this. It's a huge, huge problem in this country.
