Newly promoted Nicolle Wallace knows how to please the Democrat-loving power structure behind MSNBC. If that requires covering for the disastrous handling of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, so be it. On Monday, she talked to the man who forced nursing homes to take COVID patients in the state and never once asked him about the policy. This was despite having 16 minutes and 35 seconds of air time to do it.
Instead, she appallingly allowed Cuomo to brag and strut, suggesting that Major League Baseball should play all its games in New York. Instead of asking about the unnecessary suffering and death that his nursing home policy caused, Wallace offered hack softball questions like this: “How much of your day can you spend thinking about how to bring New York City back?”
She fawned, “As you said, we have the low infection rates. I’ve suggested that we bring all the baseball teams that are dealing with infections from states with rising cases, which is just about everyone else, to New York."
Wallace uncritically wondered, “Is [COVID] under control in New York City?”
On Monday, MSNBC announced that Chuck Todd was being demoted to the 1 PM hour and Wallace’s show was being expanded to two hours, from 4 PM to 6 PM. If she wanted to ask a tough question, Wallace could have cited the moving op-ed by Fox’s Janice Dean. Her father-in-law died needlessly after catching COVID. Dean wrote in USA Today:
... We learned about the Cuomo administration’s March 25 order that recovering coronavirus patients be placed into nursing homes. The mandate also barred nursing homes from requiring incoming patients “to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”
That order stayed in effect for 46 days during which time over 6,000 patients with the virus were placed into these facilities housing our most vulnerable. To date, at least 6,500 of our most helpless seniors have been killed by the virus. Even the governor himself said the virus could sweep though nursing homes "like fire though dry grass.”
...
The fact that this governor refuses to accept responsibility for his actions makes our grief and anger far worse. I know I speak for many when I say we need a non-partisan investigation on both the state and federal level so that this never happens again.
But Wallace has earned a promotion at MSNBC doing what the Democratic Party and the liberal establishment wants. So holding powerful liberals to account isn’t something she’s interested in.
The propaganda on MSNBC was sponsored by Safelite and Chevrolet.
The transcript of the questions to Cuomo are below. Click “expand” to read more.
Deadline: White House
8/3/20203:38 PM ET
ANDREW CUOMO: Every American knows that this was the worst government blunder in modern history. During the Vietnam War every night you saw the death toll. You saw the injury toll. On TV. Every night. They've seen this virus increasing all across the country and the death toll going up, you don't think they don't know it was a mistake.
NICOLLE WALLACE: New York Governor Cuomo once again taking aim at the federal government response to the corona virus as cases and deaths nationwide. White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx says we're in, quote,” new phase of the pandemic.” We're lucky now to be joined by governor Cuomo who's all over the news for your comments on the President, your comments about the Mayor, we'll get to all of it, though, start with the federal response and the lack of a plan in the sixth month of this pandemic, being in this country, taking lives, making millions of people sick.
...
WALLACE: On a scale from one to ten is your fear, you know, higher to 600 about a resurgence in New York City and New York state which remains safer, I guess this is a post-9/11 axiom, safer but not yet safe.
...
WALLACE: Governor, you said the Hopkins study, another one I think a lot of parents paid a lot of attention to was I believe put out by the CDC late Friday and it showed that at a Georgia camp, literally hundreds of children were infected and camp counselors. And there's no denying that children spread the virus, there are now multiple studies that they carry as much virus load as adults even though Donald Trump keeps tweeting about kids being immune. I think his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called kids “virus stoppers.” Teachers not so much, while I would agree that some of the science about our kids is still evolving, kids are in danger, teachers are definitely in danger, what should New York state and New York City school reopening plan look like?
...
WALLACE: I guess my question is more pointed. how could we consider opening schools even with a low infection rate if any teacher could be at risk of death or serious disease? And I don't know any parent who wants their kids to be a part of an experiment into how this virus takes its toll on our children.
...
WALLACE: Is it under control in new York City?
...
WALLACE: I guess that's my question — the income disparity plays out in which schools can open safely, I mean a small private school with 16 kids in a class can easily push the desks out, every public school even the nice ones in New York will have a very hard time doing that. I mean, I guess I think what parents feel is despair with either decision, there's the despair of having your kids at home, missing out on, not just socialization but I think for a lot of families school lunch, school breakfast, other services, but there's also the despair that people who need to go back to school the most are probably in the schools that are least likely to open fully.
...
WALLACE: I want to ask you something sort off topic and not in the news yet, but it’s something that I think about as a New Yorker. How much of your day can you spend thinking about how to bring New York City back? I mean, you go to New York City and it's not the city that it was six months ago and if everyone doesn't come back to school and that's not an equal situation for everybody, even more people I'm afraid would leave the city. As you said, we have the low infection rates. I’ve suggested that we bring all the baseball teams that are dealing with infections from states with rising cases, which is just about everyone else, to New York, I mean, how much of your time can you spend on New York's comeback?
...
WALLACE: What are you doing to make sure that businesses and employers don't leave the state until some of this planning can take place, companies that maybe say, “I don't need high-priced real estate in the state of New York or in the city of Manhattan,” how do you -- I work for a governor who spent a lot of his time trying to get businesses to move to Florida. How do you get businesses to stay in New York?
...
