On Tuesday, both NBC’s Today show and MSNBC actually attempted to blame President Trump for a couple in Arizona ingesting fish medication as a way to protect themselves against the coronavirus. Tragically, the husband died and his wife is in critical condition. While still in the hospital, she was contacted by an NBC reporter, whose top priority was finding a way to hold Trump responsible.
“One other development this morning, an Arizona man has died after he took chloroquine phosphate because he believed that it would protect him from the coronavirus,” correspondent Tom Costello informed viewers on the Today show. He then tried to connect the awful story to Trump: “You may recall, the President has been talking about chloroquine in a tablet form, which is a malaria drug, which he believes could in fact help people who are struggling with the coronavirus.”
Costello then touted: “We talked to this man’s wife, who is now also in the ICU, about how and why he took this particular chloroquine phosphate.” The unidentified NBC reporter who called the woman asked: “Did you seat President’s press conference? Where did you hear about – ” The woman replied: “Yeah. Yeah, we saw his press conference. It was on a lot, actually.” She also noted that “I had it in the house because I used to have Koi fish.”
Following the soundbite, Costello explained:
So this particular form of it that he took was used to killed parasites in fish apparently. As you know, the FDA is looking at whether chloroquine could be used, it’s a malaria drug, could be used to help people with coronavirus but not in a raw form, certainly not in the form that you would use to kill fish parasites.
At no point and in no way did the President ever recommend, suggest or imply that anyone should ingest fish medication to prevent COVID-19 infection.
Despite that, two hours later, early in the 9:00 a.m. ET hour, MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle kept pushing the notion that Trump was to blame:
An Arizona man has died after attempting to self-medicate chloroquine phosphate believing it would protect him and his wife from the coronavirus. The man's wife is currently in critical condition and she tells NBC News that she and her husband decided to take the additive after watching President Trump talk about the potential benefits of chloroquine during one of his televised White House briefings.
After playing cherry-picked clips of the President expressing optimism that a malaria drug containing chloroquine could help treat patients with sever coronavirus symptoms in a hospital setting, Ruhle noted: “The man’s wife, who as I said, was hospitalized herself, telling NBC News this, quote, ‘I saw it sitting on the back shelf and thought, hey, isn’t that the stuff they’re talking about on TV?’”
Only then did Ruhle explain that the substance the couple took was nothing remotely close to the medication Trump had discussed: “So it’s important to note the toxic ingredient the couple consumed was not the medication chloroquine, which is used to treat malaria. Instead, it was an ingredient listed on a parasite treatment for fish.”
The media are so desperate to find ways to exploit the coronavirus pandemic to attack the President that they are resorting to ghoulish attempts to use a person’s death to accomplish their goal.
Here is a transcript of the March 24 report on NBC’s Today show:
7:06 AM ET
(...)
TOM COSTELLO: One other development this morning, an Arizona man has died after he took chloroquine phosphate because he believed that it would protect him from the coronavirus. You may recall, the President has been talking about chloroquine in a tablet form, which is a malaria drug, which he believes could in fact help people who are struggling with the coronavirus. We talked to this man’s wife, who is now also in the ICU, about how and why he took this particular chloroquine phosphate.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did you seat President’s press conference? Where did you hear about –
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN [ICU PATIENT]: Yeah. Yeah, we saw his press conference. It was on a lot, actually.
REPORTER: And then what – did you seek out chloroquine?
WOMAN: I had it in the house because I used to have Koi fish.
COSTELLO: So this particular form of it that he took was used to killed parasites in fish apparently. As you know, the FDA is looking at whether chloroquine could be used, it’s a malaria drug, could be used to help people with coronavirus but not in a raw form, certainly not in the form that you would use to kill fish parasites. Savannah, back to you.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: That’s an awful story, Tom.
(...)
