During a softball interview with socialist Senator Bernie Sanders on Monday, aired early Tuesday morning, NBC’s Late Night host Seth Meyers urged the far-left presidential candidate to use the coronavirus pandemic to push Medicare for All. In subsequent questions, Meyers teed up the Vermont lawmaker to repeatedly bash his Republican Senate colleagues.
“One of the moments, or one of the unique things about this moment, is how it’s making a lot of people reevaluate the current system in health care,” Meyers eagerly declared. The liberal comedian then encouraged Sanders to politicize the crisis: “Could you just speak to how this moment would be different if we had a system like Medicare for All and the shortcomings of the current system we’re living with.”
Sanders expressed his gratitude for the chance to push government-run health care:
Thank you for asking that question, Seth, and I think the answer is fairly obvious. Right now, as we speak, millions of people are losing their jobs. And some 87 million people already did not have any health insurance or are underinsured. So people are sitting home right now, scared to death that somebody in their family is going to come down with the virus. They don't know how they will even pay for the treatment that they receive, let alone any other health care problems their families have.
Moments later, Meyers noted “a bipartisan bill being passed” to provide financial relief to Americans during the pandemic. However, the left-wing host quickly turned that accomplishment into a nasty smear against the GOP:
You still used your time on the Senate floor to be a bit sarcastic towards your Republican colleagues....You were referring to the fact that some across the aisle felt that the bill was being too generous to the less fortunate, to poorer Americans. In those moments of sarcasm, is that – is that just masking a simmering rage you feel when your colleagues react like that?
Sanders proclaimed: “Absolutely.”
In reality, Republicans objected to the fact that some people would receive unemployment checks that exceed their regular work income, rather than simply match their income.
In another follow-up, Meyers even suggested that conservatives were advocating for allowing some vulnerable portions of the population to simply die of the virus:
One of the other things that’s always been a criticism about the sort of health care that you’ve proposed is people will say, “Oh, there's going to be rationed care, there’s going to be long lines, there’s going to be death panels.” And yet, it does seem like now there is – certain people on the right make the argument that, “Hey, this is just how it goes during a pandemic. Some people who are most at risk, you have to sort of make an economic decision about how – what value to put on their lives.” Is that stunning to you, when you hear that?
Sanders ranted: “Of course it is stunning. It is stunning and it speaks to the hypocrisy of these folks.”
Meyers never actually challenged Sanders on how harmful rationing in a socialized health care system could be to patients.
On Monday afternoon, MSNBC tried to push Joe Biden to left on the issue by asking: “Are you now reconsidering your position when it comes to single payer health care?” Even the likely Democratic nominee thought it was a bad idea: “Single payer will not solve that at all.”
Here is a transcript of Meyers’s March 30 exchange with Sanders, aired early on the morning of March 31:
1:08 AM ET
(...)
SETH MEYERS: One of the moments, or one of the unique things about this moment, is how it's making a lot of people reevaluate the current system in health care. Obviously Medicare for All is the issue people most associate you with. Could you just speak to how this moment would be different if we had a system like Medicare for All and the shortcomings of the current system we’re living with.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS [I-VT]: Thank you for asking that question, Seth, and I think the answer is fairly obvious. Right now, as we speak, millions of people are losing their jobs. And some 87 million people already did not have any health insurance or are underinsured. So people are sitting home right now, scared to death that somebody in their family is going to come down with the virus. They don't know how they will even pay for the treatment that they receive, let alone any other health care problems their families have.
(...)
1:10 AM ET
MEYERS: This, again, moment in time, led to a bipartisan bill being passed, a bill that the President signed. You still used your time on the Senate floor to be a bit sarcastic towards your Republican colleagues. We do enjoy your sarcasm, we feel like it’s when your Brooklyn comes out. You were referring to the fact that some across the aisle felt that the bill was being too generous to the less fortunate, to poorer Americans. In those moments of sarcasm, is that – is that just masking a simmering rage you feel when your colleagues react like that?
SANDERS: Absolutely.
(...)
1:12 AM ET
MEYERS: One of the other things that’s always been a criticism about the sort of health care that you’ve proposed is people will say, “Oh, there's going to be rationed care, there’s going to be long lines, there’s going to be death panels.” And yet, it does seem like now there is – certain people on the right make the argument that, “Hey, this is just how it goes during a pandemic. Some people who are most at risk, you have to sort of make an economic decision about how – what value to put on their lives.” Is that stunning to you, when you hear that?
SANDERS: Of course it is stunning. It is stunning and it speaks to the hypocrisy of these folks.
(...)
