On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order that made it easier for small and medium-size businesses to band together in order to buy health insurance as a group and get a better rate. The Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) found that idea abhorrent and smeared it as a threat to Obama’s legacy. The hyperbole continued during ABC’s This Week on Sunday, where CNN’s Van Jones claimed Trump had no regard for the well being of Americans.
“Listen, I've never seen a president of the United States willing to hurt Americans to get his way,” Jones lamented to Clinton lackey and ABC host George Stephanopoulos. “Willing to have Americans be sick. Willing to have Americans, you know, possibly lose their lives-- watch their children with conditions, because he wants to get his way.”
In addressing American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp, the lone conservative on the stacked liberal panel, Jones said: “I agree with you that our health care system needs to continue to be improved and changed. I support the Progressive cause. I'm willing to listen to actual conservative ideas. But I'm not willing--”
Schlapp immediately cut off Jones and called him out. “But you think the President wants to kill Americans,” he exclaimed.
“I didn’t say that you said that,” Jones shot back. Did Jones really not understand what he was saying? Because he literally said Trump was “willing to have Americans, you know, possibly lose their lives.” There really was no other way to take that.
Former conservative Charlie Sykes was spouting off hyperbolic liberal talking points while claiming Trump and the Republican Party were out to sabotage ObamaCare:
It's designed specifically to sabotage ObamaCare so that what? You can force the Democrats to the table? But the problem is that we're finding out, the guy who wrote The Art of the Deal is terrible at this. He's a terrible negotiator. He doesn't understand policy, he doesn’t understand the legislative process.
“Sure. You broke it, you own it. And this is part of the problem,” Sykes added. “What he’s doing is he's sowing confusion, raising pain, shifting the blame. What you're seeing now is not repeal, it’s not replace, it's not even fixing.”
And ABC’s sensationalist White House correspondent, Mary Bruce showed off her extensive reporting on the matter by touting the staggering number of Republicans Trump had alienated with his executive order. “I’ve talked to at least one Republican who said the President's move on health care this week was simply not helpful,” she hyped. That comment came after she claimed, “this governing by disruption is an incredibly risky political gamble.”
Almost the entire panel discussion was an exercise in how to throw around incendiary and hyperbolic rhetoric while having no discernable solution to the problem. It was very much an example of how far into the gutter our politics had become.
Transcript below:
ABC
This Week
October 15, 2017
9:35:11 AM Eastern(…)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But the question is: Will the Republicans in Congress stand behind him?
MARY BRUCE: This governing by disruption is an incredibly risky political gamble. I’ve talked to at least one Republican who said the President's move on health care this week was simply not helpful. And he fears they will ultimately own this. That they will own the fallout of the president's decision here if something can’t get done.
(…)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do the Republicans now own the health care issue?
CHARLIE SYKES: Sure. You broke it, you own it. And this is part of the problem. With all due respect, Matt, he's not doing what he said. What he’s doing is he's sowing confusion, raising pain, shifting the blame. What you're seeing now is not repeal, it’s not replace, it's not even fixing. It's designed specifically to sabotage ObamaCare so that what? You can force the Democrats to the table? But the problem is that we're finding out, the guy who wrote The Art of the Deal is terrible at this. He's a terrible negotiator. He doesn't understand policy, he doesn’t understand the legislative process.
(…)
VAN JONES: Listen, I've never seen a president of the United States willing to hurt Americans to get his way. Willing to have Americans be sick. Willing to have Americans, you know, possibly lose their lives, watch their children with conditions, because he wants to get his way. I haven't seen that before. I agree with you that our health care system needs to continue to be improved and changed. I support the Progressive cause. I'm willing to listen to actual conservative ideas. But I'm not willing—
MATT SCHLAPP: But you think the President wants to kill Americans?
JONES: I didn’t say that you said that. I’m not willing, George, to see a president of the United States put Americans at risk to get his way.
