Nicolle Wallace didn't "want this to come off sounding harsh," but she was finding it "more difficult" to hope that Sen. Rand Paul, who's tested positive for coronavirus, will be okay.
No worries, Nicolle! Nothing "harsh" at all about finding it difficult to hope that someone with a potentially fatal disease is okay! Particularly when, as you twice mentioned, he's a "Republican."
Here's her full quote: "I think everybody hopes he's okay. I think, not wishing anyone to be sick or to be exposed is a universal sentiment, but I wonder if that's just made more difficult."
Wallace was responding to the report that, despite having being tested for the virus, Paul continued to use Senate facilities. Wrong on his part? Very likely. But finding it hard to summon up human decency regarding his survival? Well, Wallace is an MSNBC host, after all.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Deadline White House
3/23/20
4:25 pm EDTNICOLLE WALLACE: I don’t want this to come off sounding harsh, but I think when people hear that Republican Senator Rand Paul submitted to a test and then swam in the pool that the gym was open, I know that you're not in the Capital, you're back in your district tending to the needs of your constituents.
But what does it say that in the Capital, at least this Republican senator didn’t seem to have much regard for the health of the people around him?
REP. JIM HINES: Well, it's not just this Republican senator, right? The man's a doctor! And I would tell you that, you know, like the president’s little festival of self-pity, a medical doctor going for a swim and then going to a lunch when we should be isolating really doesn’t really send the right message, particularly since, you know, there's still defenders of the president and fans of the president who are still, they're a few days behind the president in that they still think this is all a big hoax. So what people like Rand Paul and the president do, really matters to the safety and security of the people in the country. So I have no idea what Rand Paul was thinking, but at this point, I just hope he, uh, he's okay.
WALLACE: I think everybody hopes he's okay. I think, not wishing anyone to be sick or to be exposed is a universal sentiment, but I wonder if that's just made more difficult.
