On Joy Reid's MSNBC show today, Asian-American ex-Republican Kurt Bardella claimed that because President Trump uses the—accurate—term "Chinese virus":
"People who look like me can't ride the subway without being attacked. They can't go to school without being attacked."
A bit later, Reid boasted that MSNBC is doing a good job of fact-checking President Trump. Perhaps the network should fact-check Bardella. Googling reveals that, of course, there are some instances of people confronting Asians about the virus. In a country of 330 million people, there will be some bigoted idiots.
But there is no evidence that this is widespread, or that many Asians are not riding the subway or going to school out of fear. Moreover, there is no evidence of any attacks being caused by Pres. Trump's use of "Chinese virus." Guess what? Without any help from Pres. Trump, most people know where the disease came from!
Note: Bardella had been a staffer for Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California before he was fired for sharing confidential correspondence he had with journalists with a New York Times reporter, something the then editor-in-chief of Politico called "egregiously unprofessional."
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
AM Joy
3/22/20
10:45 am EDTYAMICHE ALCINDOR: Do you think using "Chinese virus," that puts Asian-Americans at risk, that people might target them?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, not at all. I think they would probably agree with it 100%.
. . .
KURT BARDELLA: Well let me just say, as an Asian-American, yeah, it is racist, Donald Trump. So stop using it. There are right now people who are being subjected to racism, they are being attacked, they are being targeted, partly because Donald Trump is driving this racist narrative.
. . .
It's a distraction, but it's also dangerous, Joy. Because there are people who look like me right now who, they can’t ride the subway without being attacked. They can’t go to school without being attacked. They can’t go throughout their day-to-day lives without having to worry about someone targeting them.
. . .
JOY REID: You know, we here, the folks here at MSNBC, do a good job of trying to fact-check this man [Pres. Trump.]
