Amanpour & Co., which airs on PBS after appearing on CNN International, was guest hosted on Tuesday by Paula Newton, last seen here in January fretting over the disturbing coincidence of Martin Luther King Jr. Day coinciding with the inauguration of Donald Trump.
On Tuesday Newton hosted the architect of Obamacare, Ezekiel Emanuel, to warn about the Trump Administration’s “drastic cuts” to the National Institute of Health, part of the cost-cutting Trump promised (with advice from space entrepreneur Elon Musk) during his campaign.
After decades of the media lying about Republican budget “cuts” that were actually just slowdowns of projected increases, there are actual spending cuts on the table, and the press is in fight mode. Newton didn’t hold back and neither did her sole guest for the segment, from the unlabeled liberal group Center for American Progress.
PAULA NEWTON: …. judges are preventing or delaying the implementation of several of [Trump’s] executive orders, among them halting proposed cuts to the National Institute of Health's research efforts in 22 states now, drastic cuts that some experts argue could severely impact American public health. Joining me now to talk about all this is Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. He's a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He was an adviser to President Biden amid the COVID-19 pandemic and also a key architect of the Affordable Care Act….
Now, the announcement from the Trump administration of capping indirect payments to the NIH sent chills, I don't have to remind you, through the entire scientific community. We have been hearing from many, a reminder that the NIH grants have been crucial in groundbreaking medical research that I have to say, not just the United States partakes in, but people all around the world….
When Newton set him up with the softball, “Is there any doubt in your mind that this will affect the wellbeing of Americans for starters?” Dr. Emanuel obligingly took a whack.
DR. EMANUEL: ….patients on research protocols are having to be stopped. You’re in the midst of a cancer treatment as part of research and they're saying, we're not funding that grant to the same level, or we're doing critical experiments on a particular new novel therapy, that's going to stop. No, this is meant to undercut the biomedical research enterprise….
Newton also brought out that favorite liberal pinata, Project 2025.
NEWTON: And to the reasons as to why they're slashing and burning perhaps, a 2022 report by the conservative think tank that published Project 2025, something Americans have heard a lot about, they claimed that NIH funding was being used to subsidize the DEI agenda of the political left....
Emanuel agreed: “….the cutting in the NIH indirects was part of Project 2025. It's right there in the program.”
Newton came off patronizing.
NEWTON: I do want to point out how perhaps someone looking for efficiency may not understand exactly what's at stake when they're looking for it, despite what you say is they might mistake it for overhead, that's too expensive, when really, it's necessary....
At the end Newton promised “Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, we will continue to follow up with you on this….” Oh joy.
