CNN’s Chris Cuomo deceptively edited a clip last night, where Trump was talking about being a cheerleader for this country, and then used it to slam Trump for not being a leader willing to do what’s needed because he didn’t want to upset people:
CNN's Chris Cuomo deceptively edited this clip to make it look like Trump said that he didn't take action on the coronavirus because he didn't want to upset people
After the CNN clip, Trump's full remarks play which show Trump talking about the action he took
Cuomo cut that out pic.twitter.com/9cwgPvhj1u
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 8, 2020
Below is a transcript via Newsbusters:
CHRIS CUOMO: So, let’s expose something that you’ve been lied to for about for too long. This, “but the swine flu” BS. It took a year for that virus in 2009 to claim the amount of lives we’ve lost in less than two months. Do you understand that, now? Do you understand that how quickly something can kill you is a direct relationship to how threatening that thing is?
Stop ignoring the facts. For political advantage. Get real. The past is over. There can be no more letting politics reinforce our worst instincts. We need to build on our best instincts. And that said, while I’m asking you all to do that, the man at the top refuses to change.
BEN TRACY (CBS): You said, in a couple of days, the cases will be down to zero.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, the cases really didn’t build up for a while, but you have to understand, I’m a cheerleader for this country. I don’t want to create havoc and shock and everything else. [Transition] I’m not going to go out and start screaming, this could happen, this could happen.
CUOMO: That’s exactly what leadership is. Anybody can tell people what they want to hear. And make it easier. And then you know what you get? Exactly where we are right now.
That was the most asinine statement of leadership I have ever heard. And I can’t even dismiss it on the President having a 102-degree fever, like I do, because that is clear thinking from him. “I’m a cheerleader. So, I’m going to lie to you about the realities that your parents, your loved ones, and your kids face. I’m not going to prepare the way I should because it reinforces the bullshit I’m telling you. And I’m going to hope you’re okay with it.”
After playing the deceptively edited clip, he claims Trump didn’t prepare the way he should have. But that’s just not true.
As Saavedra points out, he added the full clip at the end so you can hear what Cuomo cut out, which was the president detailing exactly what he did for this country while being a ‘cheerleader’, which was stopping flights from China and then stopping flights from Europe and Great Britain.
Trump didn’t mention it in the clip, but I’ll add that he also created a task force (which CNN mocked) at the end of January and they came up with the social distancing standards that became the basis of governors shutting the country down to stop the spread of the coronavirus and keep the hospitals from being overwhelmed. And there’s more, but you get the point. Why can’t Cuomo just play the whole clip and tell the truth about what Trump did?
And then on top of this, Cuomo claimed “He said we’d be good by Easter.” (It’s not in the clip above, but Newsbusters included it in their transcript.) But that’s not true either. Trump never said we’d be good by Easter. He said he hoped we’d be good and could get the economy back going, but never said it definitively. He always said we’d have to wait and see when we got closer to Easter. It’s lies and negative spin like this that led Jonathan Turley to slam CNN at the end of March:
CNN is running a headline that Trump "now" claims Easter was aspirational. I have criticized Trump statements but he never said Easter was a firm deadline as opposed to his hope. The unrelentingly negative spin on stories makes it difficult for viewers to trust the media.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 30, 2020