While it’s the media’s job to inform the public with facts during a pandemic, liberals in the media have instead chosen to taken advantage of the situation by pushing a big government agenda down everyone’s throats during their coronavirus coverage. Sunday, MSNBC let New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio fearmonger over why we need to follow other countries and "nationalize" everything to combat the virus’s spread. Monday on ABC’s Good Morning America, the news network let New York Governor Andrew Cuomo push forward the same argument.
Right from the get go, anchor George Stephanopoulos teed up the liberal governor to tout his plan to allow the federal government to step in to control things:
“You've warned that the hospitals in New York and across the country could be overwhelmed and think it's time to call in the military?” the ABC anchor posed, uncritically.
Cuomo said, ‘yes’ and predicted that the virus spreading would “break” our current hospital system and that the army and federal government needed to come in and take over college dormitories, for instance, to build shelters for hospital beds.
Stephanopoulos presented Cuomo’s left-wing solutions as something Trump needed to consider.
“I know you've spoken with the president about this. Has he accepted your argument?” the ABC journalist asked empathetically. That was just another opportunity given to Cuomo to bash Trump’s response to the virus.
Cuomo said he spoke with Trump but how things were being done wasn’t enough and we needed to “nationalize” the coronavirus response like other countries have done:
States can't build, George, as you know. Only the federal government can build. It's the army corps of engineers, that's what they do. Let them come in today, today, because time is short. And this federal government has to get more engaged. There's been no country that has handled this that has not nationalized it. You just did a piece on all the different things different states are doing. This patchwork quilt of policies doesn't work. It makes no sense for me to do something in New York and New Jersey to do something else.
Right before this part, Cuomo ironically defeated his own argument by conceding that now that states were allowed to run the testing, kits were being sent out to hospitals more rapidly.
Regardless, Stephanopoulos continued giving the liberal governor a platform to bash Trump while touting how a more aggressive, “nationalized” response would solve everything:
Stephanopoulos asked if what Trump was doing was “enough”: “Is this new federal standard enough that basically no gatherings of 50 or more for eight weeks?”
Of course he already knew the answer to that question. Cuomo bemoaned how this wasn’t enough and that the federal government needed to give states specific, stricter rules to mandate.
Read a partial transcript, below:
ABC Good Morning America
3/16/2020
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Thank you for joining us. I know it's been a trying time. Let's start with this hospital situation. You've warned that the hospitals in New York and across the country could be overwhelmed and think it's time to call in the military?
ANDREW CUOMO: Yes. Good morning. Good to be with you, George. Look, we have been behind this disease from day one. We saw the disease developing in China back in November. We weren't ready for it, and we've been playing catchup ever since. You have to get ahead of this, right? It's not fighting the last war, it's fighting the next war. The next war is going to be overwhelming our hospital systems. You look at any of these projections and you see that coming. When you see that chart of the curve, I see it as a wave and the wave is going to break on the hospital system. We don't have the capacity, estate, to build more hospitals quickly. The only way would be if the army corps of engineers came in, worked with the states to retrofit existing buildings. Take my college dorms. Take my surplus property and retrofit it for more hospital beds, because, George, that is going to be in need.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I know you've spoken with the president about this. Has he accepted your argument?
CUOMO: I -- we've talked. I sent an open letter to him yesterday. I did talk to him about the testing which was going very slow and I said let the federal government get out of the testing business and allow the states to take it over. He allowed us to take over the testing, and we've made great progress on the testing. But again, that was yesterday. Tomorrow is going to be the wave breaking on the hospitals. Now, just to give you an idea, the state of New York, major health care system, I only have 50,000 hospital beds. I only have 3,000 intensive care unit beds, and these people are going to need the intensive care unit beds. The only hope we have now at this late date, retrofit existing facilities. Get some of the people from the hospitals into those new medical facilities and then back fill the hospital beds with the coronavirus. States can't build, George, as you know. Only the federal government can build. It's the army corps of engineers, that's what they do. Let them come in today, today, because time is short. And this federal government has to get more engaged. There's been no country that has handled this that has not nationalized it. You just did a piece on all the different things different states are doing. This patchwork quilt of policies doesn't work. It makes no sense for me to do something in New York and New Jersey to do something else.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is this new federal standard --
CUOMO: I close the bars, they go to New Jersey.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is this new federal standard enough that basically no gatherings of 50 or more for eight weeks?
CUOMO: George, no. You need the specific rules. Just take that litany that you went through. Every state cannot come up with its own rules. You'll just have people going from state to state. If I say you can't go to a bar in New York, you know you'll go to New Jersey, you'll go to Connecticut, you'll go to wherever you can be served. That's the last thing we want. Set the national standards and let's live with them. Otherwise, again, you come up with this ad hoc system that's not going to work.
