On Monday's New Day, CNN co-hosts John Berman and Alisyn Camerota brought on White House correspondent John Harwood to spew campaign propaganda for their presidential candidate, Joe Biden. Harwood flat out lied by claiming that “a significant majority of the country” supports Joe Biden and even had the gall to blame President Trump for America being “on fire.”
Berman began the segment’s unabashed bias by nastily attacking Trump’s handling of the coronavirus:
And John, I have to be honest here. I'm trying to figure out a strategy and bear with me here, it’s almost like this is the Mel Brooks film The Producers, where they're trying to produce a Broadway flop here. They’re going out of their way to make a failing response to the pandemic and politically speaking, going after Dr. Fauci and promoting Chuck Woolery seems to me to be the version of "Springtime for Hitler" that was in The Producers movie. What’s the strategy? Why? Why are they doing this?
Harwood responded by venomously by trashing the President and lying about Biden’s polling numbers:
Anthony Fauci has changed his position on some things like mask wearing and whether people needed to change their behavior. We've been watching the clips all morning. But it's the difference between someone who is experienced, who is capable, who is public spirited, who is adjusting his views in response to the facts for the benefit of his fellow citizens, with someone, I'm talking about the President now, who doesn't know what he's doing, who is not honest and who cares about no one else other than himself. If you look at the results in the United States as compared to other countries, which also had a terrible problem, but then have crushed the virus, there's no other conclusion you can reach but that the incompetence of the Trump White House has lit the country on fire and what the President is doing is retweeting a game show host saying the CDC is lying and talking about how Joe Biden's ratings are down. He had his economic adviser on the television show yesterday saying well, it's the Chinese communists who have done this to us. It is madness, but what we're seeing in the polling and the evaluations of the President and his match-ups against Joe Biden is that a significant majority of the country is now recognizing that it's madness.
Trump “has lit the country on fire?” No, it has been the far left who has been ravaging inner cities and lighting them on fire. The President of New York’s Black Lives Matter organization, Hawk Newsome, literally said that BLM would “burn down this system” if America does not cave in to BLM’s demands.
Harwood’s claim about the polls is also fake news. Even the most optimistic polls for Biden place him nowhere near possessing the vote of “a significant majority of the country.” But Harwood is campaigning for his candidate, so facts are not convenient for him.
Camerota and Harwood next mocked Trump’s COVID plan:
ALISYN CAMEROTA: So John, what's the President's plan? What is the President or the White House's plan to get hospitalizations under control, get deaths under control, get those 35 states that are spiking this morning under control?
HARWOOD: Wait, is that a serious question, Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: Yes, John, it is. I am -- I'm truly asking --
HARWOOD: He has no --
CAMEROTA: I mean, okay, forget the President. How about the White House?
HARWOOD: You known that he has no plan.
CAMEROTA: Do they have a plan? Does the White House have a plan?
Clearly, Biden and the Democrats have a much superior plan. Harwood then lied again by blaming Republican governors for the spread of COVID:
So it is a very difficult situation. It's not clear exactly how we get out of it, other than the fact that you do have local officials and state officials who do have a connection, a close connection to their constituents, and at the end of the day, are going to have to take actions that reflect the reality of the situation they find themselves in. That's why you see people like Governor Greg Abbott of Texas having reversed some of the re-openings. Ron DeSantis in Florida who’s -- all very trumpy governor, who followed the President's lead about reopening quickly, now paying a big price for it but he is reacting. So, ultimately politicians have to respond to their constituents, the closer they are to the ground the more responsive they are.
Harwood must have forgotten that Democratic run states dominate the lead in both total cases and deaths. He then had the nerve to once again blame Trump for the country being “on fire”:
But the problem is, the facts are so at odds with what the President is saying that he doesn't have much choice but to go to war against the science, go to war against the truth, go to war against the facts, and try to hope that in all the -- the confusion and fog that that creates, that people have difficulty ascribing who is actually at fault. Again, the country is on fire. The President sort of waving his arms around and -- and casting blame in various places. Whether or not people are going to be confused by that, I suppose is an open question, but they haven't been confused so far.
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The full July 13th transcript is here:
New Day
07/13/20
8:16:22 AM
JOHN BERMAN: At this hour, more than 135,000 Americans have died from coronavirus. More than 3.3 million cases in the U.S. and counting. As the pandemic worsens, the White House is taking aim at discrediting Dr. Anthony Fauci and the President is promoting statements from Chuck Woolery, the game show host, that the CDC is lying about the pandemic. Joining us now, CNN White house correspondent John Harwood. And John, I have to be honest here. I'm trying to figure out a strategy and bear with me here, it’s almost like this is the Mel Brooks film The Producers, where they're trying to produce a Broadway flop here. They’re going out of their way to make a failing response to the pandemic and politically speaking, going after Dr. Fauci and promoting Chuck Woolery seems to me to be the version of "Springtime for Hitler" that was in The Producers movie. What’s the strategy? Why? Why are they doing this?
JOHN HARWOOD (CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT): There -- there is no strategy, John. This all stems from the impulses, the pathologies of the President of the United States. To say that Donald Trump is trying to discredit Anthony Fauci with respect to coronavirus is sort of like me saying I'm going to go discredit Lebron James on the basketball court. It's not possible. What we have here, the difference between Donald Trump and Anthony Fauci is this, and yes, both of them have said different things at different times about the coronavirus. Anthony Fauci has changed his position on some things like mask wearing and whether people needed to change their behavior. We've been watching the clips all morning. But it's the difference between someone who is experienced, who is capable, who is public spirited, who is adjusting his views in response to the facts for the benefit of his fellow citizens, with someone, I'm talking about the President now, who doesn't know what he's doing, who is not honest and who cares about no one else other than himself. If you look at the results in the United States as compared to other countries, which also had a terrible problem, but then have crushed the virus, there's no other conclusion you can reach but that the incompetence of the Trump White House has lit the country on fire and what the President is doing is retweeting a game show host saying the CDC is lying and talking about how Joe Biden's ratings are down. He had his economic adviser on the television show yesterday saying well, it's the Chinese communists who have done this to us. It is madness, but what we're seeing in the polling and the evaluations of the President and his match-ups against Joe Biden is that a significant majority of the country is now recognizing that it's madness.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: So John, what's the President's plan? What is the President or the White House's plan to get hospitalizations under control, get deaths under control, get those 35 states that are spiking this morning under control?
HARWOOD: Wait, is that a serious question, Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: Yes, John, it is. I am -- I'm truly asking --
HARWOOD: He has no --
CAMEROTA: I mean, okay, forget the President. How about the White House?
HARWOOD: You known that he has no plan.
CAMEROTA: Do they have a plan? Does the White House have a plan?
HARWOOD: Look -- well, what we have is a situation where a large percentage of the government is trying to work around the President as if -- if he's not there. So yes, the CDC, despite, you know, the President tweeting a game show host smears against it is trying to do its job. It put out guidelines on reopening schools, although we saw that the President's education secretary yesterday would not embrace in a serious way those guidelines. You have Anthony Fauci trying to do his job at NIH and in -- and in the infectious disease division of NIH. So yes, there are people who are working very hard, members of the task force, to try to get information, to try to coordinate with states, to try to remedy some of the holes in the administration's response. But we've seen that the problem is, if you do not have coordinated leadership from the top, it is very difficult to be effective, and clearly the federal government has not been effective, and states which follow the lead of this president have also not been effective. So it is a very difficult situation. It's not clear exactly how we get out of it, other than the fact that you do have local officials and state officials who do have a connection, a close connection to their constituents, and at the end of the day, are going to have to take actions that reflect the reality of the situation they find themselves in. That's why you see people like Governor Greg Abbott of Texas having reversed some of the re-openings. Ron DeSantis in Florida who’s -- all very trumpy governor, who followed the President's lead about reopening quickly, now paying a big price for it but he is reacting. So, ultimately politicians have to respond to their constituents, the closer they are to the ground the more responsive they are.
BERMAN: So you know, we’ve all covered presidential campaigns before, political campaigns before. Usually when opposition research is dumped, it's done anonymously. In this case, the White House and again, this isn't the President, this is a coordinated effort, the White House wanted us to know that they were attacking Anthony Fauci. That's one part of it I still can't get my arms around there, John. They wanted us to know they were attacking Fauci. Why?
HARWOOD: I -- I -- I can't figure out why they would want to do that. The President's obviously tried to sort of play both sides on this, and diminish the prominence of Fauci without openly going to war with him. But the problem is, the facts are so at odds with what the President is saying that he doesn't have much choice but to go to war against the science, go to war against the truth, go to war against the facts, and try to hope that in all the -- the confusion and fog that that creates, that people have difficulty ascribing who is actually at fault. Again, the country is on fire. The President sort of waving his arms around and -- and casting blame in various places. Whether or not people are going to be confused by that, I suppose is an open question, but they haven't been confused so far.
