On Friday morning, CNN Newsroom host Jim Sciutto and senior political analyst David Gergen hailed President Biden's supposed FDR-esque Thursday night address for breaking with the Reaganesque distrust of government solutions to problems.
Sciutto began: "You know, the central part of that point, from President Biden last night, about trust in government. It goes further than just hearing factual statements from the White House, as opposed to lies. Because it -- it -- you know, when you look at the COVID relief, this is a massive change in the government role in people's lives, with high approval ratings."
Sciutto the former Obama aide asked Gergen for his opinion on the morning column from "David Brooks, conservative columnist for The New York Times." Brooks is not conservative, especially now in his flagrant cheerleading for the massive "COVID relief" package. But Gergen and Brooks are an easy match: both have served as the fake "conservative" half of the PBS NewsHour pundit team.
Summarizing the flowery Brooks article on Biden and his COVID counter-revolution, Sciutto claimed "He compares this to a kind of mirror image of the Reagan Revolution, right? Turning it around from saying all-government intervention is bad, to -- listen, even going back to the Trump Administration, right, trillions of dollars from the government to help people."
He asked Gergen if he shared the Brooks take: "Yeah, absolutely. Because Ronald Reagan, in his inaugural address, says government is not going to solve our problems, government is the problem. And, here, Joe Biden is saying, number one, out of the box, you know, we are not going to be able to solve this on our own. The government has to do it. And I think he was very effective last night."
Gergen then moved onto another historical comparison. "If you go back and listen to the fireside chats of Franklin Roosevelt. They're wonderful to listen to because they are soothing, they're informational, they're a teaching device in FDR. I thought that's what Biden did last night. He is a fan of Franklin Roosevelt, as we all know. But he really -- he really copied some of the techniques that, I think, made FDR so effective."
Naturally, CNN was not to interested in the nuances of Reagan versus Biden and FDR. Sciutto, Gergen, and Brooks avoided differentiating between emergency spending and non-emergency spending and had to use a once-in-a-century event to declare Biden a transformational president.
This segment was sponsored by Liberty Mutual.
Here is a transcript for the March 12 show:
CNN
CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto
9:04 AM ET
JIM SCIUTTO: You know, the central part of that point, from President Biden last night, about trust in government. It goes further than just hearing factual statements from the White House, as opposed to lies. Because it -- it -- you know, when you look at the COVID relief, this is a massive change in the government role in people's lives, with high-approval ratings, you know, David Brooks, conservative columnist for The Times, I know you know him well. He compares this to a kind of mirror image of the Reagan Revolution, right? Turning it around from saying all-government intervention is bad. To, listen, even going back to the Trump Administration, right, trillions of dollars from the government to help people. Right? I mean, I wonder if you have the same view as Brooks does?
DAVID GERGEN: Yeah, absolutely. Because Ronald Reagan, in his inaugural address, says government is not going to solve our problems, government is the problem. And, here, Joe Biden is saying, number one, out of the box, you know, we are not going to be able to solve this on our own. The government has to do it. And I think he was very effective last night. If you go back and listen to the fireside chats of Franklin Roosevelt. They're wonderful to listen to because they are soothing, they're informational, they're a teaching device in FDR. I thought that's what Biden did last night. He is a fan of Franklin Roosevelt, as we all know. But he really -- he really copied some of the techniques that, I think, made FDR so effective. And that is, you can trust somebody who is more low key. You know, who doesn't say -- he said we are going to make it by July 4th, if you all stick together. It's not a speech about I, I, I. It's a speech about us, us, us. What we -- what we can do together. So, I thought, altogether, it was just a very effective start to the -- the execution of this new plan.
