During a Sunday interview with the Coronavirus Task Force’s Admiral Brett Giroir, MD, CNN’s State of the Union host and political activist (not a journalist) Jake Tapper assailed the Admiral with conspiratorial accusations of withholding information and not pushing President Trump, lies about testing, and claims his guest “spent this entire interview talking about how great and perfect everything is.” But Admiral Giroir was having none on Tapper’s shrill nonsense and called him out for lying.
Early in the interview, Tapper asked Giroir a fair enough question: “Are you happy where testing is right now?” “I'm never going to be happy until we have this under control and we're going to continue to push every single day to improve the testing, the type of testing that we have, and the rapidity of turnaround,” the Admiral answered earnestly.
But while Giroir was explaining where they’re putting resources to grow testing capacity, Tapper rudely interrupted his guest because of “audio problems.” And while Tapper was getting it sorted out, meaning he still couldn’t hear, he pressed Giroir on “why is the Trump administration not doing everything it can to get testing where it needs to be,” in terms of “not fully activated all of the labs available. Including hospital labs, commercial nonclinical labs, academic labs, veterinary labs.”
It was a lie and the Admiral called him out on it (click “expand”):
GIROIR: So, every one of those examples that is you said we are absolutely doing so I'm not quite sure why you're saying we are not doing this them. Just this week, I had a call with over 500 university presidents, provosts, and vice presidents and we’ve been talking to governors for at least a month, maybe two months, about activating the university labs.
We’ve created the regulatory milieu to do that. We can do surveillance testing in a non-CLIA, that’s a CMS non-CLIA lab with tests that are not even authorized as long as they’re valid. And we can do that in a pooled way and that's what universities across the country are doing. We have several veterinary labs, I believe it’s five right now that got their CLIA certification so they can actually do human testing.
“So, everything you just talked about we have been doing for at least six or eight weeks and in terms of the number of tests that we have available,” he added.
Tapper’s supposed audio problem was likely CNN boss Jeff Zucker telling him what to say (there’s evidence of this being done previously), because ever since that point the questions grew increasingly hostile and shrill. “When I say you haven't done everything you can,” he prefaced before demanding a “Manhattan Project-like effort.”
“The Manhattan Project-like effort’s being led by the Vice President of the United States, with the top officials from multiple sectors meeting multiple times a week and literally 24/7 since this has started,” Giroir rebuked Tapper’s underhanded assertion.
Things got personal when Trapper accused the Admiral of being afraid of the President, thus not doing his job adequately. Giroir put down that lie quickly and decisively (click “expand”):
TAPPER: There seems to be this reluctance to push the President to do what he needs to do to get the testing up to speed. I know that he is under the misguided impression that more testing is bad and makes him look bad. Which as you know is completely false. And I'm wondering if you and others are just afraid to do this because you don't want to upset him. (…) Are you afraid to bring this up to President Trump because it will upset him?
GIROIR: So, Jake, there's about six different things that you said in there and let me unpack it a little bit. Let me start with the first premise. Everyone in the administration understands the importance of testing. Nobody in the task force is afraid to bring up anything to either the Vice President or the President. Every time I met with the President he’s been listening to all the data, he assesses that, he understands it. I meet with the Vice President almost every single day. No one is trying to stop testing in this country. No one has ever told me to do that. In fact, we want more, we want better, we want quicker. So let me just put that to rest right there.
On the issue of contact tracing, Giroir schooled Tapper on the fact the administration had “sent $10.25 billion to the states to support their state plans.” But only $50 million had been withdrawn, which meant the states weren’t using the resources given to them.
Acting like a jerk, Tapper lashed out at the Admiral and declared: “Invoke the DPA so that commercial labs all over the country, ones you are not using, five veterinary labs is not impressive to me, sir.”
First off, no one cares what impresses you Jake. Second, Giroir buried him on that point too. “No, no, no. I said five veterinary labs have their CLIA certification to officially test human patients. There are a lot of labs who are doing surveillance testing that don't need the CLIA certification and maybe I'll nuance this a little bit,” he began to explain.
But before he could finish his answer Tapper began shouting over him. “No one thinks testing is up to speed where it needs to be. No one thinks it’s where it needs to be and yet you have spent this entire interview talking about how great and perfect everything is,” he said. It was another lie to put Trumpian language in his mouth.
Giroir quickly dispelled that lie as well, reminding Tapper that “I started out by saying that we are never going to be happy with testing until we get turnaround times within 24 hours and I would be happy with point-of-care testing everywhere. We are not there yet. We are doing everything we can to do that.”
All of that was true, and the quotes above and the transcript below prove that. Tapper was doing Zucker’s bidding like the good puppet that he was.
Tapper’s lies were not sponsored by advertisers this week. He surprisingly did the entire hour without a commercial break. But you you’re looking for how to fight back against other instances of liberal media bias, check this out.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s State of the Union
July 26, 2020
9:03:22 a.m. Eastern(…)
JAKE TAPPER: Everyone agrees testing has improved but it is not where it needs to be. Why not? Why is it not where it needs to be, sir?
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, MD (Coronavirus Task Force): So, thank you for having me on and let me assure you that we are not going to stop our efforts until testing is exactly where we want it to be with rapid turnaround times. We’ve done over 54 million tests, 770,000 a day. That's not a 140 percent increase, that's a 140 fold increase.
In terms of turnaround, I know you are a numbers guy so want to make sure we have this is clear. About one-quarter of the tests in this country are done as point of care, a 15-minute turnaround. About another quarter are done at local hospitals and laboratories, which is generally within 24 hours. The delays that most people talk about at the large commercial labs that perform about half the testing in our country.
Now, the data are the average turnaround is 4.27 days. I follow that morning and evening. I know exactly when it’s ordered and when it’s resulted. We are trying to bring that down. Just this week pooling was authorized in both of the large labs, Quest and Lab Corp. That improve efficiency. We’re adding surge testing to a number of cities where there are outbreaks. We’re surging point of care to every single nursing home.
And finally, we'll continue to invest and you will see a large investment being announced later on today to improve the supply chain. So we are all working to improve testing. This is an unprecedented demand. Again, I'm sorry Mick had that experience. We’re all working to improve that.
TAPPER: Are you happy where testing is right now?
GIROIR: I'm never going to be happy until we have this under control and we're going to continue to push every single day to improve the testing, the type of testing that we have, and the rapidity of turnaround.
Where we see the growth is in point of care. We'll have about 50 million tests available in August, about 65 million in September --
TAPPER: Uh, hold on a second, sir. I'm having audio problems. But let me -- While I'm fixing my audio, let me ask this to you, the Harvard Institute of Global Health says that the U.S. should be conducting three million to five million tests per day. Three to five million tests per day. We're doing as you noted less than 800,000.
Experts also note that the Trump administration has not fully activated all of the labs available. Including hospital labs, commercial nonclinical labs, academic labs, veterinary labs. I know that you are saying that things have improved a lot and they have, but you concede they're not where they need to be. Why is the Trump administration not doing everything it can to get testing where it needs to be?
GIROIR: So, every one of those examples that is you said we are absolutely doing so I'm not quite sure why you're saying we are not doing this them. Just this week, I had a call with over 500 university presidents, provosts, and vice presidents and we’ve been talking to governors for at least a month, maybe two months, about activating the university labs.
We’ve created the regulatory milieu to do that. We can do surveillance testing in a non-CLIA, that’s a CMS non-CLIA lab with tests that are not even authorized as long as they’re valid. And we can do that in a pooled way and that's what universities across the country are doing. We have several veterinary labs, I believe it’s five right now that got their CLIA certification so they can actually do human testing.
So, everything you just talked about we have been doing for at least six or eight weeks and in terms of the number of tests that we have available. Look, we are able to achieve almost all our goals right now. I know people throw out numbers. They say we need 300,000 tests, when we get 300,000 tests, they say we need 900, when we get 900, they say we need 3 million. I actively work with academic, methodological people all across the country. We want to improve our testing but we have enough tests right now if we use them in the right way to achieve the goals that we need to achieve.
(…)
TAPPER: When I say you haven't done everything you can, this is what I mean. Has the Trump administration forced federal labs to hire more workers, buy more equipment? Has President Trump invoked the defense production act to get every commercial lab up to speed? Has the Trump administration invoked the defense production act to get contact tracing up to speed? There are millions of unemployed Americans who could be working at labs and doing contact tracing. That’s what I mean, a Manhattan Project-like effort?
GIROIR: I think that's exactly what we’ve been doing. The Manhattan Project-like effort’s being led by the Vice President of the United States, with the top officials from multiple sectors meeting multiple times a week and literally 24/7 since this has started.
We invoked the defense production act numerous times, invested in multiple different technologies. Every single day I have a working group looking at how to invest. That's something that we do and you’ll see more investments coming later today.
(…)
TAPPER: Contact tracing.
GIROIR: Contact tracing. Yeah, thanks. So look. We sent $10.25 billion to the states to support their state plans. Now, we have outlined all the requirements that have to put in the state plan. We assess them, adjudicate them. That’s $10.25 billion to hire contact tracing. They have plenty enough money to do that. As of last week, of the $10.25 billion, there's only been $50 million drawn down from that $10.25 billion from the states. So, there is money there for them to do it.
(…)
TAPPER: There seems to be this reluctance to push the President to do what he needs to do to get the testing up to speed. I know that he is under the misguided impression that more testing is bad and makes him look bad. Which as you know is completely false. And I'm wondering if you and others are just afraid to do this because you don't want to upset him. (…) Are you afraid bring this up to President Trump because it will upset him?
GIROIR: So, Jake, there's about six different things that you said in there and let me unpack it a little bit. Let me start with the first premise. Everyone in the administration understands the importance of testing. Nobody in the task force is afraid to bring up anything to either the Vice President or the President. Every time I met with the President he’s been listening to all the data, he assesses that, he understands it. I meet with the Vice President almost every single day. No one is trying to stop testing in this country. No one has ever told me to do that. In fact, we want more, we want better, we want quicker. So let me just put that to rest right there.
(…)
TAPPER: I just told you. Get federal labs to hire more people and get more equipment to increase turnaround times. Invoke the DPA so that commercial labs all over the country, ones you are not using, five veterinary labs is not impressive to me, sir.
GIROIR: No, no, no. I did not say that.
TAPPER: Get all of those labs up to seed.
GIROIR: No, no, no. I said five veterinary labs have their CLIA certification to officially test human patients. There are a lot of labs who are doing surveillance testing that don't need the CLIA certification and maybe I'll nuance this a little bit. Surveillance testing is a way that we--
TAPPER: No one thinks testing is up to speed where it needs to be. No one thinks it’s where it needs to be and yet you have spent this entire interview talking about how great and perfect everything is. But this is the weakest part of the response to this virus is testing. And where it is not--
GIROIR: I started out by saying that we are never going to be happy with testing until we get turnaround times within 24 hours and I would be happy with point of care testing everywhere. We are not there yet. We are doing everything we can to do that.
(…)
