In a Sunday morning newscast that could easily be described as grotesque, ABC’s Good Morning America stoked conspiracy theories about President Trump’s health following his hospitalization for COVID-19. On top of that, they hyped radicals who were touting the diagnosis and an anchor complained about the President having access to the “best medical care possible” to protect his life.
About halfway through the program, which focused heavily on Trump and his health, co-anchor Whit Johnson was speaking with Dr. Ashish Jha when he complained about the President of the United States getting the most cutting edge treatment available:
Most would agree that the president of the United States should get the best medical care possible. When it comes to these experimental treatments, thousands of people across the country who are suffering from this virus, and their family members who are suffering, they're now going to ask if they can have these treatments, too. Give us a reality check on the Remdesivir and specifically this antibody cocktail, who will have access and who won't?
Dr. Jha had to remind his host that “Remdesivir should be available to people who are hospitalized across the country.” He then explained that the “antibody cocktail” was still experimental and “we don't know if it's going to end up being helpful to him or not.”
Just minutes before Johnson’s ridiculous complaint, which he wouldn’t have voiced if it were President Obama, correspondent Janai Norman touted people bashing Trump’s “behavior during the pandemic.” “He really needs to know it can happen to anybody at any given time,” declared an unidentified man in a soundbite she shared.
And reading a quote from someone she failed to identify as vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s relative and propagandist, Meena Harris, Norman decried Trump’s recent White House event to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
“And his management of the crisis, criticizing his Supreme Court nomination announcement, now believed to have been a super-spreader event. Writing, ‘Mothers gave birth alone. Families weren't allowed to attend a grandparent's funeral. Graduations and weddings were canceled,’” she read from a tweet. Meanwhile, the same could be said about Democrats who cheered on mass protests and allowed riots over the summer.
At one point in the program, chief anchor and Clinton lackey George Stephanopoulos boasted about a poll showing people who thought Trump “didn't take the appropriate precautions” and got what was coming to him (Click “expand”):
But here's what we know about what the situation was before the President announced he had COVID, before he was hospitalized. He was trailing by at least seven points. In the debate, the first polls that have come out since the debate show that the President bore most of the blame for what happened there on Tuesday night and was likely losing some support. People believe he lost that debate.
We've got a new poll out this morning showing that nearly three in four Americans believe the President didn't take the appropriate precautions, didn't take the chance of getting COVID seriously enough.
And we know that with about 30 days to go until the final votes, the President had to do something to turn this around in a world where COVID was the worst possible issue for him all through the course of this campaign.
“So, I think it's hard to imagine that this would help him. But again, we have no idea how this is being processed in the minds of the American people,” Stephanopoulos added.
Meanwhile, at the top of the program, White House correspondent Rachel Scott stoked conspiracy theories about the President’s condition. “The White House has offered conflicting messages on the President's health,” she claimed. “The President insists he is feeling better. But that came just hours after a senior White House official told us he is still not on a clear path to full recovery.”
“Bottom line here, we still do not know when the President will be discharged, when he first started experiencing symptoms, or how he was infected,” she complained, refusing the acknowledge that doctors will allow him to leave when he’s well and, in the meantime, he’ll continue to execute the duties of his office.
Scott also lashed out at Trump’s doctor at Walter Reed Medical Center for “dodged key questions about his health.” Of course, she omitted how Dr. Sean Conley still needed to follow the HIPPA privacy pledge even though he was the doctor for America’s top public official.
ABC’s aversion to President Trump receiving the best medical care available was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from United Healthcare and Lincoln. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they’re funding.
The transcript is below click "expand" to read:
ABC’s Good Morning America
October 4, 2020
8:02:02 a.m. EasternEVA PILGRIM: And good morning. The President looking to reassure Americans about his condition by tweeting out a video overnight. His doctor says Trump has made substantial progress since he was diagnosed with COVID-19. While he says the President is not out of the woods, he's cautiously optimistic. That coming after a day of contradictory statements. His doctors' comments not quite matching up with what the White House was saying about the President's health.
DAN HARRIS: And there are growing concerns about how the White House has handled testing and contact tracing. The President is now among at least eight people who have tested positive after the White House event on September 26th to reveal the President's Supreme Court nominee. Among the people at the event now infected, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who has checked himself into a hospital.
WHIT JOHNSON: Multiple sources telling ABC News that Friday night was, quote, “scary,” and they were concerned about the President. For the latest this morning on the president's condition, let's go to ABC's Rachel Scott in Bethesda, Maryland. Rachel, good morning.
RACHEL SCOTT: Whit, good morning. The White House has offered conflicting messages on the president's health. Bottom line here, we still do not know when the President will be discharged, when he first started experiencing symptoms, or how he was infected. The President insists he is feeling better. But that came just hours after a senior White House official told us he is still not on a clear path to full recovery.
[Cuts to video]
Overnight, President Trump recording this video from the hospital telling the American people he's on the road to recovery, but admitting he's not out of the woods just yet.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I came here, wasn't feeling so well. I feel much better now. [Transition] You don't know over the next period of a few days, I guess that's the real test. So we'll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days.
SCOTT: This coming after a stark warning from a senior White House official telling us the next 48 hours will be critical in the President's fight against the virus. That assessment at odds with what doctors told reporters earlier Saturday.
(…)
SCOTT: At Walter Reed, the President's medical team insisted Trump's symptoms, a mild cough, nasal congestion, and fatigue were improving, but dodged key questions about his health.
(…)
SCOTT: It is unclear when and how the President was infected. The White House's physician has already had to backtrack on the timing of the president's diagnosis.
(…)
8:07:14 a.m. Eastern
PILGRIM: In Rachel's piece, we saw the video of the President speaking from the hospital. He said in that video the next few days are the real test. Now we've been told that the President's vital signs were at least at one point very concerning. We know that he received oxygen. What does that say to you?
DR. JEN ASHTON: Wow, Eva, so much to unpack there. First of all, big picture here, as I've been saying from the start of this pandemic, I think it is really important to get medical information from medical professionals. Get political information from politicians. So, what may be very concerning to a layperson may not be very concerning to a physician.
In terms of this oxygen question, I can only tell you as a practicing physician if I had a 74-year-old man who happened to be the president of the United States, I would have an extremely low threshold for putting a little bit of supplemental oxygen on someone. We really can't read too much into what “dropping” [used finger quotes] means. If a number goes from 97 to 96, that is not as clinically significant as if it goes to 88, for example.
(…)
8:13:17 a.m. Eastern
HARRIS: So cold, hard, political question here. How is this likely to play politically for the President? Is it likely to garner a lot of sympathy for him, or highlight a lot of the criticisms of his handling of the pandemic?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Short answer is who knows. We've never faced a situation like this before. We've never had a president facing a personal health crisis just a month away from the final votes in a re-election campaign.
But here's what we know about what the situation was before the President announced he had COVID, before he was hospitalized. He was trailing by at least seven points. In the debate, the first polls that have come out since the debate show that the President bore most of the blame for what happened there on Tuesday night and was likely losing some support. People believe he lost that debate.
We've got a new poll out this morning showing that nearly three in four Americans believe the President didn't take the appropriate precautions, didn't take the chance of getting COVID seriously enough.
And we know that with about 30 days to go until the final votes, the President had to do something to turn this around in a world where COVID was the worst possible issue for him all through the course of this campaign.
So, I think it's hard to imagine that this would help him. But again, we have no idea how this is being processed in the minds of the American people.
(…)
8:20:28 a.m. Eastern
JANAI NORMAN: And focusing on the President's behavior during the pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: He really needs to know it can happen to anybody at any given time.
NORMAN: And his management of the crisis, criticizing his Supreme Court nomination announcement, now believed to have been a super-spreader event. Writing, [Meena Harris] "Mothers gave birth alone. Families weren't allowed to attend a grandparent's funeral. Graduations and weddings were canceled."
(…)
8:33:59 a.m. Eastern
JOHNSON: Most would agree that the president of the United States should get the best medical care possible. When it comes to these experimental treatments, thousands of people across the country who are suffering from this virus, and their family members who are suffering, they're now going to ask if they can have these treatments, too. Give us a reality check on the Remdesivir and specifically this antibody cocktail, who will have access and who won't?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes, so Remdesivir should be available to people who are hospitalized across the country. It has gotten preliminary approval from the FDA. In terms of this antibody cocktail that the President got, we don't actually know if it works or not. We're hoping it does. The studies are being done right now. And if the studies pan out, then I'm hoping later in the year and really probably in 2021 it will be widely available. But the President got something where we don't know if it's going to end up being helpful to him or not.
(…)
