Gov. Cuomo’s deadly New York nursing home scandal is more than just a scandal, really. It’s a manmade disaster of unprecedented proportions. 5,443 nursing home residents have died of Covid on Cuomo’s watch in New York City ALONE. That’s note even the whole state. That’s about twice the number of people who died in New York City on 9/11.
Yet President* Joe Biden called Cuomo’s leadership the “gold standard” and the White House is refusing even today, in the midst of the huge scandal over not only Cuomo’s mismanagement but his LYING about it, to condemn him or even retract the “gold standard” line.
When spox Jen Psaki REFUSED to do so, ABC’s Jon Karl barely and reluctantly tried a couple of times to get her to, before being shut down.
NOW… compare that with how Karl treats GOP whip Rep. Steve Scalise, when he is asked YET AGAIN about Trump’s leadership on January 6.
Here’s the transcript, which practically speaks for itself, but even so I’m going to bold some highlights, and then single out one part in particular (below.)
KARL: When you met with the former president, did you ask him to take responsibility? Did he take responsibility?
SCALISE: Well, Jonathan, I was in Florida doing some fund-raising throughout a number of parts of Florida, ended up at Mar-a-Lago, and the president reached out, and we visited. I hadn’t seen him since he had left the White House. And it was actually good to catch up with him. I noticed he was a lot more relaxed than — than his four years in the White House.
He still cares a lot about this country and the direction of our country. But, you know, it was a conversation more about how he’s doing now and what he’s — you know, what he’s planning on doing and how his family is doing.
KARL: But — but, wait a minute, I mean, he hasn’t taken responsibility. You heard Kevin McCarthy say — I mean, do you agree with what Kevin McCarthy said there, that the president must take responsibility, that the facts demand that he take responsibility for what happened on January 6th?
SCALISE: Well, first of all — now, I wrote a Wall Street Journal editorial about where I think the responsibility lays for January 6th. And surely, there’s a lot of blame to go around.
But at the end of the day, the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th, it was a disgrace. And they need to be held accountable. And in fact, over 180 have already been arrested. And I know the FBI’s working to root out every person who broke into the Capitol, who attacked police. There’s no place for that.
KARL: I mean, that’s — that’s obvious. I’m asking you about Donald Trump’s role in this. You heard, again, Kevin McCarthy. Do you agree with what he said, that he bears responsibility for what happened…
(CROSSTALK)
KARL: … for what happened…
SCALISE: Well, again, you could go back — you can go back and look at the impeachment trial, the second impeachment trial — it seems like all they’ve done since the day he walked into office was try to impeach him — but, again, when you look at that trial, they ran a clip of pretty much every United States senator who voted to impeach President Trump who talked about things like “go and fight like hell” and other things like that.
(CROSSTALK)
KARL: So you’re saying he doesn’t bear responsibility as president?
SCALISE: When you look at — look, Donald Trump has denounced what happened, and I think everybody should have been unequivocal in their denouncing of what happened, not only on January 6th but during the summer, when they were burning down cities, shooting cops, beating people in the streets. You — you saw…
KARL: So…
SCALISE: … the left denouncing January 6th, as we did. They didn’t denounce what happened during the summer. So let’s be across the board and say anybody who resorts to violence to settle political disputes…
KARL: OK…
SCALISE: … there’s no place for that in America and it should be disputed unequivocally.
KARL: Let’s also be clear, the president, then-president Donald Trump did not denounce what happened on January 6th on January 6th.
But clear this up for me. Joe Biden won the election. He is the legitimate president of the United States. The election was not stolen. Correct?
SCALISE: Look, Joe Biden’s the president. There were a few states that did not follow their state laws. That’s really the dispute that you’ve seen continue on.
And, look, if you’re Joe Biden, you probably want to keep talking about impeachment and anything other than the fact that he’s killed millions of American energy jobs, that he continues to — they just signed the Paris Accord. It’s going to kill manufacturing jobs in America.
But at the end of the day, when you look at where we are in this country, either we’re going to address the problems that happened with the election that people are still — millions of people are still concerned about — the Constitution says state legislatures set the rules for elections. That didn’t happen in a few states. And so, going forward — look, Joe Biden’s the president. But does he…
(CROSSTALK)
KARL: I mean…
SCALISE: … towards what people are angry about?
KARL: But — but, Congressman, I know Joe Biden’s the president. He lives at the White House. I asked you, is he the legitimate president of the United States, and do you concede that this election was not stolen?
Very simple question. Please just answer it.
SCALISE: Look, once — once the — once the electors are counted, yes, he’s the legitimate president. But if you’re going to ignore the fact that there were states that did not follow their own state legislatively set laws, that’s the issue at heart, that millions of people still are not happy with and don’t want to see happen again.
You know, look, we — you can rehash the election from 2020 all day long, but there are people concerned about what the next election is going to look like. Are we going to finally get back to the way the rule of law works?
And I think that’s the biggest frustration many people have, is those states that didn’t follow the law, are they going to keep doing that in the future, or are we going to finally get back to what the Constitution calls out for electing our leaders?
KARL: All right. Congressman Steve Scalise, thank you for joining us on this “This Week.” Appreciate it.
“Very simple question. Please just answer it,” he says at one point impatiently. That was after angrily not accepting any responses for longer than the entire exchange with Psaki.
With her, this is what suddenly respectful Karl said: “Just a yes or no.” That was it.
Watch both videos. It’s stark and unmistakable. He goes to war with the Republican. He’s practically winking at the Democrat.