CNN’s John Berman Grills Pence on Trump Administration’s Coronavirus Response: ‘174,000 Americans Have Lost Their Lives to This Pandemic’
CNN anchor John Berman grilled Vice President on the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic during a Friday morning interview — pressing him on his previous claim that there would be no second wave.
“You do lead the coronavirus task force, as of this morning, 174,000 Americans have lost their lives to this pandemic,” Berman said. “As we sit here this morning, what is the projection you’re looking at for the number of Americans who will lose their lives by tend of the year?”
Pence did not give a projection, and ignored the fact that there were 1,000 new cases as of Thursday, but instead assured Berman that his team is working hard to slow down the spread, noting that cases are beginning to go down in the midwest.
“Let me be very clear, John, if I may. We mourn with those who mourn,” Pence added. “Never been a day gone by we haven’t thought about families who have lost loved ones in the midst of this pandemic but I must tell you I truly believe that when President Trump suspended all travel from China before the end of January and stood up the White House coronavirus task force, an action that Joe Biden criticized as xenophobic. He essentially said it was racist for the president to suspend travel from China, the reality is that bought us time to begin work on a vaccine. We’re already in phase 3 clinical trials to stand up our national response. We’re doing 800,000 tests a day to develop hundreds of millions of medical supplies.”
Biden, in fact, did not refer to the travel ban as xenophobic or racist but instead supported the move once medical experts backed it as well. Trump’s order did not ban all travel from China.
“Joe Biden supports travel bans that are guided by medical experts, advocated by public health officials, and backed by a full strategy,” Kate Bedingfeld, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, told CNN. “Science supported this ban, therefore he did too.”
Biden instead used the word “xenophobic” in a tweet responding to Trump’s use of the word “Chinese Virus”:
Stop the xenophobic fear-mongering. Be honest. Take responsibility. Do your job. https://t.co/nQ5aLVrpyb
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 18, 2020
Berman repeated his question on coronavirus deaths to Pence, adding that the model the White House uses projects 300,000 more lives lost by the end of the year, before he noted that Trump failed to suspend travel from Europe until mid-March, when cases had already reached New York and other areas on the East Coast.
“On June 16th, you wrote we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy and you said the panic is overblown,” he added. “You said that on June 16th. Since then, 53,000 more Americans have died. More than 3 million more Americans have been infected with coronavirus. So how was the concern overblown?”
Pence explained that at the time of his article, coronavirus cases were declining and that even scientists believed the worst was over and that the virus would be seasonal.
“So you were wrong — you were wrong on June 16th– were you wrong on June 16th when you said it was overblown?” Berman asked.
“Well, CNN was wrong a lot early in the year, John,” Pence shot back, adding that the virus response had been a learning process.
Pence then praised the president’s leadership and the testing and ventilators that Trump’s task force has made available throughout the United States.
Watch above, via CNN.
