In a softball interview with likely Democratic nominee Joe Biden aired late Tuesday night, MSNBC anchor Brian Williams urged the former Vice President to hold President Trump personally “culpable” and “responsible” for coronavirus deaths in the United States.
“Joe Biden’s been critical of the Trump administration’s response to this coronavirus since January. It’s been two long months now, and so today we asked him to assess the President’s performance,” Williams noted during his 11:00 p.m. ET hour show, as he teed up a portion of the exchange he had taped with Biden earlier in the day.
The anchor asked: “Mr. Vice President, what is President Trump’s level of culpability, what’s his level of responsibility, say, toward the illness and fatalities we’re witnessing every few minutes these days?”
Biden stopped short of blaming the President for pandemic deaths: “I’d put it slightly differently. What is his responsibility, and what – if there was, you know, allocating responsibility, you know, I’ll let history do that.” However, he did rush to say “I told you so”: “But it’s clear that a lot of people, not just me, but a lot of people talked about – saw this coming all the way back in January.”
In reality, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll found that more Americans (47%) trust Trump to handle the coronavirus pandemic than Biden (43%).
Moments later, Williams longed for former President Obama to address the nation:
Mr. Vice President, a number of Americans, some of them prominent in the public eye, have said they would find it calming and perhaps reassuring to hear from our past presidents in the modern era. Paraphrasing the President, he has not reached out to our past presidents because he would do so if he thought he could learn something. About the guy you worked with, do you think it’s time for Americans to hear, in a more public setting, from Barack Obama?
Biden predictably agreed: “I think that it would be wise if the President – if Trump called President Obama.” The Democratic presidential candidate then proclaimed: “I’m going to say something that sounds self-serving, but I think we handled the last pandemic very well. We handled the last economic crisis very well....where there was no waste of time and money.”
Williams didn’t bother to fact check the laughable claim that the Obama administration never wasted time or money in response to the financial crisis.
Also missing from the interview was a single question about the sexual assault allegations being leveled against Biden. Something ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN have all be silent on during recent interviews with the Democratic frontrunner.
Incredibly, the initial question from Williams was actually a toned-down version of what Chuck Todd asked Biden on Sunday’s Meet the Press about Trump: “Do you think there is blood on the President’s hands?”
Here is a transcript of the March 31 exchange between Williams and Biden:
11:35 PM ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Joe Biden’s been critical of the Trump administration’s response to this coronavirus since January. It’s been two long months now, and so today we asked him to assess the President’s performance.
Mr. Vice President, what is President Trump’s level of culpability, what’s his level of responsibility, say, toward the illness and fatalities we’re witnessing every few minutes these days?
JOE BIDEN: I’d put it slightly differently. What is his responsibility, and what – if there was, you know, allocating responsibility, you know, I’ll let history do that. But it’s clear that a lot of people, not just me, but a lot of people talked about – saw this coming all the way back in January. On January the 17th, I think, I wrote an article for one of the major press outlets saying that we had to begin to act now.
(...)
11:38 PM ET
WILLIAMS: Mr. Vice President, a number of Americans, some of them prominent in the public eye, have said they would find it calming and perhaps reassuring to hear from our past presidents in the modern era. Paraphrasing the President, he has not reached out to our past presidents because he would do so if he thought he could learn something. About the guy you worked with, do you think it’s time for Americans to hear, in a more public setting, from Barack Obama?
BIDEN: I think that it would be wise if the President – if Trump called President Obama. I’m going to say something that sounds self-serving, but I think we handled the last pandemic very well. We handled the last economic crisis very well in the organizational structure, how we did it, what we did, who we put in charge, how it got done, where there was no waste of time and money.
(...)
