The journalists and guests on CNN are doing their best to stay partisan during this mounting coronavirus emergency. On Sunday, liberal Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter brought on David Remnick to slime Donald Trump. The New Yorker editor excoriated the “mendacious” Trump, saying his “sins” will “be paid in human lives.”
Asked to compare the President and New York’s Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo, Remnick naturally cheered on Cuomo: “Governor Cuomo, no matter what you thought of him before, whatever arguments you might have had before is treating this with truth and straightforwardness. He's treating the citizens of New York as adults, people who can make their decisions based on the truth and understand the truth.”
According to the New Yorker editor, Trump’s “worst qualities” will be paid in “human lives”:
The President of the United States, well, the cocktail of all his worst qualities is mendaciousness, his constant telling of lies, his narcissism, his lack of empathy for people in general, his obsession with money, classes, etcetera, has led to disaster, has led to delay. And this will be -- and I think history will prove this -- this will be something that's paid in human lives and that's an enormous tragedy.
Striking a condescending tone, Remnick pitted the “informed” vs. the stupid Trump supporters: “And it's, you know, it works hand in hand with Fox News and other such media. And what you see in this country, unfortunately, is a kind of a country trade is divided in half in some ways, and it's based largely on information.”
He also repeated the false claim that Trump called the corona crisis a “hoax.” But, then, Remnick is known for ridiculous hyperbole. He once claimed that the “future of the Earth” hung in the balance during Trump’s impeachment.
A transcript of the segment is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Reliable Sources
3/29/2020
11:57 AM ET
BRIAN STELTER: Every day these New York City streets get lonelier and lonelier and that is a good thing. But it's not just New York. Dr. Deborah Birx said today that no state, no metro area will be spared from this virus. What is happening in New York now is coming to cities and communities across the country.
Let me bring in the editor of the New Yorker Magazine, David Remnick. He's been publishing the magazine from home. David, we're standing by for Governor Cuomo's press conference, his daily briefing. How would you contrast Cuomo and President Trump's handling of the crisis?
DAVID REMNICK (Editor, The New Yorker): Truth versus mendacity? Governor Cuomo, no matter what you thought of him before, whatever arguments you might have had before is treating this with truth and straightforwardness. He's treating the citizens of New York as adults, people who can make their decisions based on the truth and understand the truth.
The President of the United States, well, the cocktail of all his worst qualities is mendaciousness, his constant telling of lies, his narcissism, his lack of empathy for people in general, his obsession with money, classes, etcetera, has led to disaster, has led to delay. And this will be -- and I think history will prove this -- this will be something that's paid in human lives and that's an enormous tragedy.
STELTER: You wrote from your most recent column for The New Yorker that misinformation is a pathogen unto itself and can cost lives. Is what Trump's doing misinformation? Is that your view?
REMNICK: I do. I think it's a horror. And it's, you know, it works hand in hand with Fox News and other such media. And what you see in this country, unfortunately, is a kind of a country trade is divided in half in some ways, and it's based largely on information and their attitude, as Maggie pointed out, as Maggie Haberman pointed out before, how they feel about Donald Trump.
The idea that the President of the United States would get up in front of -- in front of the country and say that this is going to be like a miracle, that it will all pass, and it's a hoax played out to exacerbate charges against him on the political scene. All of this immediately translates over to Fox News and it gets told over and over again, and people believe it, and it affects their behavior, not just what they do at the voting booth. And that, to me is something that will go down in history as one of the worst sins a president could ever have made.
STELTER: Two Americas divided during a pandemic.
