Through its rhetoric on the coronavirus pandemic, CNN has made it abundantly clear its goal has been to send Americans into mentally-crippling fear over the coronavirus pandemic and blaming President Trump directly for the rampant loss of life. Thursday’s Situation Room did that in reacting to the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, bragging that “the chickens [have come] home to roost” for the “dishonestly rosy” Trump as it’s “beating him and beating him badly.”
In other words, optimism and hope for tomorrow is poisonous to the health of CNN’s narrative. There’s an obvious balance between denial of the pandemic’s seriousness and outright doom and gloom, but CNN has never been concerned about that or our collective psyche.
Chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta brought the rhetorical pom-poms, crowing that Trump has been in “a full-scale retreat on the part of the President when it comes to this coronavirus pandemic.”
Acosta reemphasized his lobbying for schools to remain closed indefinitely, kvetching that Trump had cancelled the Jacksonville portion of the RNC but has still “push[ed] schools to reopen around the country” when, in his mind, schools reopening (really anywhere) would be lead to an acceleration of suffering.
If Acosta was serious about journalism instead of being focused on scaring Americans into hiding under their sheets, he wouldn’t have hyped “the chickens are coming home to roost” for Trump with this virus and made him “irrelevant” (click “expand”):
And so Wolf, you know, there was a point during this briefing as the President was opening up and announcing this news about the convention down in Jacksonville where he sounded like he's coming to the reality of the situation that this pandemic is getting out of control in this country, but yet if he had been more serious about the virus months ago, this situation could be in better shape than where it is right now. He might even be able to have his nominating speech in Jacksonville or have a normal convention down in Charlotte had he’s taken this seriously all along and so the President is finding himself to be a victim of his own leadership, his own lack of leadership throughout this pandemic and it is — the chickens are coming home to roost for this President. He's also seeming much more irrelevant than we've seen perhaps throughout his presidency as he's backpedaling on a convention, backpedaling on reopening schools, saying it's going to be up to governors. Giving up on his wishes for payroll tax cut. Also giving up on other items so Republicans can get more coronavirus relief money out there to the rest of the country.
So this is a President, because he has downplayed and diminished the threat of this virus, who has put himself in this very precarious political position where his own party is going off and doing what it wants to do when it comes to coronavirus relief, and he's having to essentially backpedal on all of these lines in the sand that he's been drawing throughout this entire pandemic, Wolf.
Host Wolf Blitzer falsely claimed that Trump had never told Americans to be on alert for the virus and care for one another, insisting that he “should have been saying this months ago.” Having daily coronavirus briefings for through March and April and three phases of relief apparently don’t count.
It’s as if these despicable frauds didn’t want the President to encourage mask-wearing, social distancing, and watch out for one another. Unbelievable.
Speaking of unbelievable, chief political correspondent Dana Bash replied with confidence that the coronavirus has been “beating” Trump “and beating him badly,” insinuating it was the only reason why the President has expressed seriousness about the virus (click “expand”):
[I]t was communicated to the President that his opponent is not Joe Biden, it is the coronavirus and in the past couple of days, he finally realized that the coronavirus is beating him and beating him badly and there is nothing that he could do except for change course tactically, rhetorically and I think that's the important thing to keep in mind here. What we heard and what we saw was a change in rhetoric. Yes, some action. The fact that he is completely retreating on this big convention that he demanded in the face of a lot of opposition from inside, and certainly from people even on the outer circle of the Trump orbit, that he had a big convention that he weed to have people there cheering, and to have that — those optics. But what happened was last month, he got what he wanted, and it backfired in a very big way and so his numbers started to decline and now he is trying to build those numbers back up. That is why he is canceling the Jacksonville portion of his convention.
That is why, and we should not lose sight of this, he really also reversed himself in a big way on schools. He has been demanding that schools go back, no matter what. Find way to go back. He was not saying that today. He said that, you know, local leaders, superintendents, so forth, they have to make the decision based on what is happening in their areas, offering more money, as opposed to threatening to withhold money. That's another very, very big retreat and it all falls under the umbrella of the fact that his opponent is the coronavirus, the coronavirus is winning, and that it's largely because he completely mostly ignored it, and certainly didn't lead the federal government in trying to show leadership to fix it.
Leave to CNN to take solace in any aspect of a global health pandemic.
Before a commercial break, so-called fact-check and sniveling prick Daniel Dale continued his crusade for mental suffering, whining that Trump has, “for months,” “continue[d] to paint a dishonestly rosy picture of the pandemic.”
“Today, he said that most of the country has no problem. That's not true at all. No place is immune. He said that in hot spots like Jacksonville, it goes away quickly once it arrives. It does not go away quickly, does not go away at all without extensive efforts,” he added.
CNN’s opposition to hope and being content with the virus “beating” their hated President was bought and paid for (and thus supported) by ADT and Amazon Prime Video. Follow the links to the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back site.
To see the relevant CNN transcript from July 23, click “expand.”
CNN’s The Situation Room
July 23, 2020
5:58 p.m. EasternJIM ACOSTA: I think this was, in part, a full-scale retreat on the part of the President when it comes to this coronavirus pandemic. You know, he is the one that wanted to have this part of the convention in Jacksonville because officials in North Carolina would not bend to his demands for a big, splashy nomination event. He's the one that wanted to put it down there, and now because he has to acknowledge the reality of the situation — I was talking to a Trump adviser a few moments ago about this. They could not have a nominating speech in Jacksonville in a football stadium or amphitheater, wherever, packed with senior citizens, and expect to not have an explosion of cases of the coronavirus and so the President had to bend to the reality there of the situation down in Florida as that state is dealing with a very serious situation when it comes to the coronavirus. But Wolf, it sets up a very, I think, important question for the President. How is it that he is okay with canceling a convention in Jacksonville because of concerns with the coronavirus, but yet it's okay for him to push schools to reopen around the country? He is still demanding that schools by and large reopen across the U.S. He was talking about how children can withstand the virus, how they have stronger immune systems, so on, disregarding, once again, as we've recounted, time and again, Wolf, the threat that is posed by children spreading the virus to their teachers and their loved ones at home when they come home from school, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, administrators, and so on. The President is not dealing with that reality.
So, he’s okay with canceling a convention in Jacksonville because of health concerns and yet he wants to push schools to reopen. He did say that he's hoping that that money will be used as a carrot for schools so they can use some of these funds to put, you know, safety precautions in place, but there's very little time for a lot of school districts around the country to do that. And so Wolf, you know, there was a point during this briefing as the President was opening up and announcing this news about the convention down in Jacksonville where he sounded like he's coming to the reality of the situation that this pandemic is getting out of control in this country, but yet if he had been more serious about the virus months ago, this situation could be in better shape than where it is right now. He might even be able to have his nominating speech in Jacksonville or have a normal convention down in Charlotte had he’s taken this seriously all along and so the President is finding himself to be a victim of his own leadership, his own lack of leadership throughout this pandemic and it is — the chickens are coming home to roost for this President. He's also seeming much more irrelevant than we've seen perhaps throughout his presidency as he's backpedaling on a convention, backpedaling on reopening schools, saying it's going to be up to governors. Giving up on his wishes for payroll tax cut. Also giving up on other items. So Republicans can get more coronavirus relief money out there to the rest of the country. So this is a President, because he has downplayed and diminished the threat of this virus, who has put himself in this very precarious political position where his own party is going off and doing what it wants to do when it comes to coronavirus relief, and he's having to essentially backpedal on all of these lines in the sand that he's been drawing throughout this entire pandemic, Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER: Yeah, that's an important point. Dana — Dana Bash is with us as well. We did hear the President say today stuff that he should have been saying months ago. We have to be vigilant. We have to be careful. We have to set an example. There has to be social distancing, everyone has to go out there and start wearing a mask. All of this is critically important. I'm glad the President is saying it now, but Dana, I think it's clear he should have been saying this for a long time.
DANA BASH: You know, Wolf, I have been talking to people who are familiar with the President's thinking for some time who are saying — who were telling me over and over again that it was communicated to the President that his opponent is not Joe Biden, it is the coronavirus and in the past couple of days, he finally realized that the coronavirus is beating him and beating him badly and there is nothing that he could do except for change course tactically, rhetorically and I think that's the important thing to keep in mind here. What we heard and what we saw was a change in rhetoric. Yes, some action. The fact that he is completely retreating on this big convention that he demanded in the face of a lot of opposition from inside, and certainly from people even on the outer circle of the Trump orbit, that he had a big convention that he weed to have people there cheering, and to have that — those optics. But what happened was last month, he got what he wanted, and it backfired in a very big way and so his numbers started to decline and now he is trying to build those numbers back up. That is why he is canceling the Jacksonville portion of his convention. That is why, and we should not lose sight of this, he really also reversed himself in a big way on schools. He has been demanding that schools go back, no matter what. Find way to go back. He was not saying that today. He said that, you know, local leaders, superintendents, so forth, they have to make the decision based on what is happening in their areas, offering more money, as opposed to threatening to withhold money. That's another very, very big retreat and it all falls under the umbrella of the fact that his opponent is the coronavirus, the coronavirus is winning, and that it's largely because he completely mostly ignored it, and certainly didn't lead the federal government in trying to show leadership to F it.
BLITZER: I think that, Dana, you make a really important point, because the President clearly did say something he hasn't said before, that if cities and states, school districts, if they're in hot spots and they think they can't reopen, they may need to delay, he said, for a few weeks. We haven't heard that from the President before, and we hadn't heard, as we said, $105 billion proposed to help the schools around the country reopen.
(....)
6:07 p.m. Eastern
BLITZER: You were listening as closely as anyone to what the President was saying. What jumped out at you, Daniel?
DANIEL DALE: Wolf, the President continues to paint a dishonestly rosy picture of the pandemic. He's done this for months. Today, he said that most of the country has no problem. That's not true at all. No place is immune. He said that in hot spots like Jacksonville, it goes away quickly once it arrives. It does not go away quickly, does not go away at all without extensive efforts. He said that the country is doing well unless you look south and west. I think that comment fact checks itself. He also continued to try to portray himself as the ventilator king by saying ventilators were hard to come by before him. In fact, the Department of Health told me there have been 19,000 ventilators in the national stockpile for “many years.” Wolf, I also think it's important to point out the distinction between Trump reading from his script, as he did today, and the Trump who's just talking, as he has recently. So, Trump said today it's important to set an example by avoiding things like a packed hall at a convention. Well, he held a campaign rally with no distancing in June over the objections of health authorities, subsequently bashed Democratic governors for not letting him do more. He talked about the need to surge testing. In an interview on Fox yesterday, he said testing is overrated and that he's okay with doing it because they say it's fine, but made clear, he's not a big fan. So, yes, we hear somewhat of a “new tone” from the President at the podium, but it's important to look at what he says when he's just being himself, as he is in interviews, on Twitter, and so on.
