CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang was on a crusade to take down President Trump and politicize the coronavirus crisis in the process. As NewsBusters as documented over recent weeks, she has been out of control: getting into repeated shouting matches with the President, decry his messages of hope, and directly claimed blood was on his hands. She flaunted her animus again on Monday when she parroted words from an unnamed Democratic aide who said Trump was “insane and criminal.”
Teed up by CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell to talk about Democratic governors asking Vice President Mike Pence to control unemployed protesters, Jiang touted how one anonymous Democrat lashed out.
“Well Norah, they are still begging the White House to help them get testing supplies. And one senior official who works for a Democratic governor, who listened in on that call, said it is ‘insane and criminal’ the administration is not doing more to help,” she enthusiastically reported. “But tonight, once again, the President said the burden is on the states.”
Continuing to ignore administration progress on getting private companies to convert their facilities to produce personal protective equipment for health care workers and ventilators for virus patients, Jiang portrayed Trump’s response to the virus as a mess.
In addition, she also pushed the debunked claim that the President’s response to the virus, particularly his ban on travel from China, was delayed and thus he was responsible for killing people. “Meantime, as some supporters push for him to reopen the country now, the President continues to defend his decision not to close it sooner,” she chided.
She even flaunted a clip of her battling the President on the matter:
JIANG: Why did you wait so long to warn them?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If you look at what I did in terms of cutting off or banning China from coming in --
JIANG: Chinese nationals, but by the way, not Americans who were also coming in from China.
TRUMP: We cut it off. People were amazed.
And if Trump didn’t let Americans back in, the media would say he was abandoning our citizens in foreign lands.
As NewsBusters had pointed out a previous time Jiang tried to push that nonsense claim, the night Trump banned travel from China O’Donnell punted it away in order to hype Impeachment “drama on Capitol Hill.”
Speaking of travel bans. In an effort to bash Trump on all fronts, CBS Evening News had done a 180 flip in their demands for them. On March 11, Jiang used a soundbite of Dr. Anthony Fauci talking about the need for travel bans to suggest Trump wasn’t doing that. But the next night, after Trump’s address to the nation announcing a travel ban from Europe, CBS was outraged.
This from the same network that praised how China had “attacked” the virus.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
April 20, 2020
6:36:48 p.m. EasternNORAH O’DONNELL: And tonight, we have learned that Democratic governors asked Vice President Mike Pence, during a conference call, to help them control those protesters that Janet just mentioned. Even though the President has been encouraging them on Twitter and at his daily briefings.
Weijia Jiang is at the White House tonight. And Weijia, what else did the governors ask for?
WEIJIA JIANG: Well Norah, they are still begging the White House to help them get testing supplies. And one senior official who works for a Democratic governor, who listened in on that call, said it is "insane and criminal” the administration is not doing more to help. But tonight, once again, the President said the burden is on the states.
[Cuts to video]
Tonight, governors are pleading with President Trump for more coronavirus tests.
GOV. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL): We need a lot more testing across the country.
JIANG: During a conference call with governors today, Democratic leaders from Michigan and North Carolina urged Vice President Pence to stress social distancing, worried anti-quarantine protests in their states could lead to a spike in new infections. The Vice President acknowledging on the call and at his Sunday bri--
[Technical glitch or bad editing]
VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: There are areas we continue to watch carefully on the task force including the Chicago metro area, Boston metro, and Philadelphia metropolitan area.
JIANG: Maryland's Republican governor, Larry Hogan, said today he was so desperate for test supplies that he had his South Korean-American wife, Yumi help broker a $9 million deal to get 500,000 test kits from South Korea.
GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): The administration made it clear over and over again, they want the states to take the lead, and we have to go out and do it ourselves. And so, that's exactly what we did.
JIANG: Congress is just days away from a vote to replenish the small business fund, while storefronts like these in Evanston, Illinois sit closed waiting for help. Shake Shack got a $10 million loan, but says it returned the money because so many smaller businesses were left out.
SHERRY CHUA (Small business owner): Very frustrating, when we found out they funded the big chain restaurants instead.
JIANG: Meantime, as some supporters push for him to reopen the country now, the President continues to defend his decision not to close it sooner.
Why did you wait so long to warn them?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If you look at what I did in terms of cutting off or banning China from coming in --
JIANG: Chinese nationals, but by the way, not Americans who were also coming in from China.
TRUMP: We cut it off. People were amazed.
[Cuts back to live]
JIANG: Well, President Trump says one governor who has both criticized and praised his response, New York's Andrew Cuomo, will come here to the White House to meet with him tomorrow. Norah?
O’DONNELL: All right, Weijia. Thank you.
