The days of speaking truth to power are long over. Everything is now fine and we should just trust the White House. That was the tone from CBS This Morning as the co-hosts lectured a Republican Senator to just give the Democrats what they want for the bloated, barely-related COVID relief bill.
Talking to Rick Scott of Florida, co-host Anthony Mason demanded: “One of the things people are worried about is getting relief from the coronavirus. The Democrats are pushing a COVID relief bill that you oppose. You say it's too big. Isn't it just important to get relief out to people as quickly as possible?”
Scott shot back: “Less than one percent of the bill is about the vaccine. It's about a bridge for Chuck Schumer, a tunnel for Nancy Pelosi. I mean, this is about — this is about paying back liberal politicians, it's not about getting our country back to normal again.”
For the CBS hosts, the complaints weren’t important. Tony Dokoupil dismissed the concerns as “a point of political messaging.”
Senator, I hear that as a point of political messaging. I think the Democrats are aware that it would appear that you guys are holding up something that, as you point out, is not all about those unemployed Americans but would help about ten million unemployed Americans. So what do you do politically here to — what would you say to them this morning about why you're saying no when this could help them?
Back on February 2, This Morning co-host Gayle King made it explicitly clear what the thinking is about the news administration: Just trust them.
Let's start with the numbers. Because I’ve heard Team Biden says this, “Listen, we didn't make these numbers up willy nilly. We went line by line. We want the moment to be met at this particular time.” And that was the number they came up with to meet the need. Shouldn’t they have a good starting point of a number? Isn’t that a good idea? “Go big,” they say.
Speaking truth to power? Not anymore.
The Democratic propaganda on spending was sponsored by Facebook and Amazon. Click on the links to let them know what you think.
A transcript of the questions can be found below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS This Morning
3/1/2021
8:04
ANTHONY MASON: Republican Senator Rick Scott is s former governor of Florida. He's chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee which supports GOP Senate candidates. Senator, good morning. Thank you for being with us. We appreciate it. As Tony just mentioned —
SENATOR RICK SCOTT: Good morning.
MASON: Good morning. As Tony just mentioned, the former President again falsely claimed that he won the election. You have said you accept the — you accept the presidential election results. How does the Republican Party move forward if you're still arguing about the election results?
..
MASON: You say, Senator, the Republican civil war has been canceled. But Vice President Mike pence, congresswoman Liz Cheney were noticeably absent from CPAC. The President directly attacked Republicans who voted against him in the impeachment trials, in the impeachment trial. How do you have a unified party? How is the civil war cancelled if that is going on in public?
...
TONY DOKOUPIL: You're right that Washington is a different animal than the rest of the country. But those senators and members of congress who are calling out the president, they're representing or trying to represent what they think the viewpoint is in their states. So I want to get one more question in on the divide that we're seeing. Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader until this past election, has called President Trump “morally and practically responsible” for the assault on the capitol. Former President Trump for his part calls Mitch McConnell a political hack. That seems like an untenable situation for Republicans. How do you go forward?
...
MASON: To your point, senator, one of the things people are worried about is getting relief from the coronavirus. The Democrats are pushing a COVID relief bill that you oppose. You say it's too big. Isn't it just important to get relief out to people as quickly as possible?
...
SCOTT: Less than one percent of the bill is about the vaccine. It's about a bridge for Chuck Schumer, a tunnel for Nancy Pelosi. I mean, this is about — this is about paying back liberal politicians, it's not about getting our country back to normal again... It's very partisan. It's not a bipartisan bill. It's not -- they didn't come to Republicans and say let's work together. Every bill we did last year we allocated $4.5 trillion was bipartisan. There's still $1 trillion we haven't spent.
...
DOKOUPIL: Yeah. Senator, I hear that as a point of political messaging. I think the Democrats are aware that it would appear that you guys are holding up something that, as you point out, is not all about those unemployed Americans but would help about ten million unemployed Americans. So what do you do politically here to — what would you say to them this morning about why you're saying no when this could help them?
SCOTT: Come talk to us. We want to help people. We're not going to go waste Americans' money.
...
