David Muir Scores a Big Interview, Crushes It. Candace Owens Does Too, But Faceplants. | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room
THE DAILY NEWSLETTER – THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2021
MEDIA WINNER: David Muir
President Joe Biden doesn’t do a lot of interviews. But when he chose to speak to an anchor ahead of Christmas, as the Omicron variant of Covid batters the United States, he chose David Muir.
Muir is the lead anchor and managing editor of ABC’s World News Tonight, the most-watched evening news broadcast in the country. So the booking makes sense, and is a win in and of itself.
But Muir’s questioning made news as well. He pressed the president on where the administration fell short in anticipating this new phase of the pandemic.
“You told the American people ‘We’re closer than ever to our independence from a deadly virus.’ Do you think you overpromised?” Muir asked.
He then followed up: “The vice president said in recent days that you didn’t see Delta coming, you didn’t see Omicron coming. How did you get it wrong?”
That question took Biden by surprise, and he argued that no one could have seen these new variants coming. That’s debatable — at-home testing could have been pushed earlier — and kudos to Muir for putting Biden on the spot.
MEDIA LOSER: Candace Owens
Candace Owens can’t be loser of the day, she scored a big interview with former President Donald Trump, and made headlines! you say.
You’re not wrong. But in that very same interview — in the actual moment that is making headlines — Owens advanced a staggeringly asinine argument against Covid-19 vaccines.
Trump, who has promoted vaccines in recent days, called them in the new interview “one of the greatest achievements of mankind.”
That prompted Owens to point out that more people have died this year of Covid than in 2020, before vaccines were available, as if that somehow proved the vaccines are not effective.
As harebrained as her commentary was, it did however prompt a fairly stunning moment in which Trump mounted a forceful argument in favor of vaccines, one that his supporters might be shocked to hear.
“The vaccines work,” he said. “The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine.”
“Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, it’s a very minor form,” he continued.
“People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine.”
Links We Like:
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‘Have I Hit Bottom?’: Michael Avenatti and the Fall of a Trump-Era Antihero
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