We've all witnessed the shocking scenes of racists attacking Asian-Americans, accusing them of responsibility for the coronavirus!
Oh, wait: we've seen no such thing. But that didn't stop MSNBC political analyst Karine Jean-Pierre of MoveOn.org from spouting off late Monday afternoon that talking about the coronavirus as "Chinese virus" (as President Trump has) was not only racist, but places Asian-American "lives at risk" for having spoken as such. The horror!
Here was Jean-Pierre's hot takes in full, decrying Trump engaging in "xenophobia and racism" that, presumably, she believes could lead to non-Asians leaving their homes to harm or murder their fellow men and women:
I wanted to say the xenophobia and the racism in outbreaks is such a common thing. We’ve seen it in past health outbreaks that we’ve seen in this country's history. The problem is it’s coming directly from the President of the United States. And it is incredibly dangerous, it is problematic, and it is scary. And I just really want to call that out because you do have people in the Asian-American community whose lives are at risk. And for the President to call it a Chinese virus or a foreign virus, that is not --- it's just so dangerous and not a good thing to do, obviously.
She continued by furthering the disgusting, liberal media-fueled lie that President Trump previously dubbed the Wuhan Virus "a hoax." Of course, fill-in host John Heilemann did nothing to push back:
So, here’s the thing --- the other thing, too, John, is that in a public health crisis, you need the president, you need our leaders to be consistent and Donald Trump has not given us consistency. One week it's a hoax, one week it is a crisis, and then the next week we have a somber, very focused Donald Trump and then five hours later he is like a wrecking ball on Twitter. And again, that is dangerous, that is scary and that is not helpful.
From the Spanish flu in 1918, to the Hong Kong flu in 1968, to even non-pandemic diseases like Lyme Disease, there is a long history of identifying illnesses by their country of origin. It's no different today. But somehow, MSNBC would twist President Trump's accurate identification of the origin of the novel coronavirus as "xenophobia" and "racism."
For the simple reason that she couldn't, Jean-Pierre offered no evidence in support of her inflammatory contention that the mention of Chinese flu puts Asian-American lives at risk. It is deplorable to exploit the current situation for such crass, fear-mongering, political purposes.
And for good measure before Jean-Pierre, Heilemann gloated that Trump "came to the realization that happy work Trump was not working." Illustrating the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't position the right will always find itself in with the left, Heilemann bashed Trump's serious tone as no more than "xenophobic, wartime Trump."
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC's Decision 2020
03/17/20
4:29 p.m. EasternJOHN HEILEMANN: Karin, it seems to me that this --- and that has what’s happened over here in these last couple of days, that President Trump has realized, on the basis of the continued falls in the stock market and some of the briefings that suggest how serious the health impacts of the virus could be here in the United States, that he finally came to the realization that happy work Trump was not working and was going to bear up to reality. So he shifted now and he's shifted to xenophobic, wartime Trump, where he thinks the only path now is to basically declare the virus public enemy number one, paint it in somewhat racist terms and then say we must defeat this virus and try to take the mantle that I'm like the --- I’m like the Douglas MacArthur, the Dwight Eisenhower or Harry Truman of virus --- of warfare that --- that is Trump is making that pivot. I'm curious whether you see the same thing, number one and whether you think that is a strategy that has any chance of working when we also see schizophrenic Trump behaving in different ways on Twitter than he does in the White House Briefing Room.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: So, first of all, John, I wanted to say the xenophobia and the racism in outbreaks is such a common thing. We’ve seen it in past health outbreaks that we’ve seen in this country's history. The problem is it’s coming directly from the President of the United States. And it is incredibly dangerous, it is problematic, and it is scary. And I just really want to call that out because you do have people in the Asian-American community whose lives are at risk. And for the President to call it a Chinese virus or a foreign virus, that is not --- it's just so dangerous and not a good thing to do, obviously. So, here’s the thing --- the other thing, too, John, is that in a public health crisis, you need the president, you need our leaders to be consistent and Donald Trump has not given us consistency. One week it's a hoax, one week it is a crisis, and then the next week we have a somber, very focused Donald Trump and then five hours later he is like a wrecking ball on Twitter. And again, that is dangerous, that is scary and that is not helpful. Look, Donald Trump has 72 million followers on his Twitter account. Imagine if he used that to share important guidelines from CDC or to give factual information to people who are incredibly worried about what's happening right now in our country. Instead, he attacks Democratic governors. Instead, he tweets about Hillary Clinton, he talks about ratings on the TV show. And yeah, you know, you could say there's some sort of political trajectory here. He's --- he’s throwing red meat at his base, but this is not the time for that. We need leadership and he needs to be consistent.
