Appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday to sell his new Trump-trashing book, CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria told co-host and Democratic operative George Stephanopoulos that if the President were to win reelection, the nation would be unable to combat the coronavirus. The left-wing hack went on to blame the pandemic on conservatives who believe in limited government.
“We have failed at tackling COVID and we can learn how to do it better....The first thing is to acknowledge that we screwed this up,” Zakaria proclaimed. He then added: “It’s not just Trump, this has been a large systemic failure....We are not still in the learning mode because we’re still in the denial phase.”
In a follow-up, Stephanopoulos eagerly teed up his guest to specifically attack the President and warn viewers against voting for him: “I know you write that it’s not all President Trump’s fault, but you’re pretty tough on President Trump in the book as well. Can you imagine this country doing the things we need to do if he’s re-elected?”
Predictably, Zakaria replied: “No. I think that President Trump is in denial.”
Not being content with blaming Trump, the CNN GPS host decided to condemn the entire conservative movement:
I think that part of it is also, George, and I talk about this in the book, you have had a movement for the last 30 years that says government is bad, the federal government is the problem. The federal government is a source of all evils. You have people like Grover Norquist saying, “We want to drown – we want to get the federal government so small we can take it into a bathtub and drown it.” Well, if you’re trying to drown and starve and destroy the federal government, guess what, when you have a pandemic, it’s not going to work very well.
Being a partisan hack himself, Stephanopoulos of course never challenged that tirade.
Instead, Zakaria was given more air time to campaign against the President as the softball interview concluded:
I think if you look at the people who changed the world in the 1940s and ’50s, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, they were all very idealistic about what they wanted to do, they wanted to build a United Nations, they wanted to create NATO, they wanted to create the World Health Organization....And I think what Donald Trump represents, in some ways, is a rejection of that grand, broad, big-hearted American tradition of engagement with the world, of generosity, and of openness.
Given the massive failure of governments around the world and international groups like the World Health Organization in response to the pandemic, it’s astonishing that Zakaria would demand that we place all our faith in those institutions. Of course big government is a religion to leftists in the media, and they are devout.
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Here is a full transcript of the October 7 segment:
8:39 AM ET
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Welcome back to GMA. We’re here with Fareed Zakaria. The foreign policy analyst and anchor from CNN and The Washington Post is out with a new book: Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World. Welcome, Fareed, good to have you back here on GMA. And I do want to talk about the post-pandemic world, but we’re still in the thick of it right now. The President battling COVID, it’s spreading through our capital. And what do you think the world makes of this right now? I know some intelligence officials are warning that our adversaries could try to take advantage of this chaos.
FAREED ZAKARIA: Well, they absolutely could because what the President seems to forget is we are in the midst of a raging global pandemic, the worst in a century. He says don’t let COVID dominate your lives, well, how do you make that not dominate your life when it’s the largest event in several decades? This is the most consequential event we’ve had, it’s bigger than 9/11, it’s bigger than the global financial crisis, and it’s not done yet. You know, we may have COVID fatigue, George, but the virus does not.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you also say it’s an opportunity. Explain that.
ZAKARIA: Well, look, you always learn, as a human being, as a country, as a company, you learn from failure. And the first thing we need to understand is we have failed. We have failed at tackling COVID and we can learn how to do it better. And the best way you do that is look at people who got it right. The first thing is to acknowledge that we screwed this up. It’s not just Trump, this has been a large systemic failure. But from that lesson you can then start to ask yourself, what can you do better? We are not still in the learning mode because we’re still in the denial phase.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I know you write that it’s not all President Trump’s fault, but you’re pretty tough on President Trump in the book as well. Can you imagine this country doing the things we need to do if he’s re-elected?
ZAKARIA: No. I think that President Trump is in denial. I think that part of it is also, George, and I talk about this in the book, you have had a movement for the last 30 years that says government is bad, the federal government is the problem. The federal government is a source of all evils. You have people like Grover Norquist saying, “We want to drown – we want to get the federal government so small we can take it into a bathtub and drown it.” Well, if you’re trying to drown and starve and destroy the federal government, guess what, when you have a pandemic, it’s not going to work very well.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your final lesson in the book is something of a paradox, “Sometimes the greatest realists are idealists.”
ZAKARIA: Well, I think if you look at the people who changed the world in the 1940s and ’50s, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, they were all very idealistic about what they wanted to do, they wanted to build a United Nations, they wanted to create NATO, they wanted to create the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and in doing all that, in imbuing the world with this idealism, they really did change it. You haven’t had a major war between the great powers in 75 years, you’ve had a world of peace and prosperity.
And I think what Donald Trump represents, in some ways, is a rejection of that grand, broad, big-hearted American tradition of engagement with the world, of generosity, and of openness. And I think it’s also unrealistic because we did change the world. We can do it again. We just have to learn the right lessons.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Fareed Zakaria, thanks very much. Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World is available right now.
