Chris Hayes Reflects on US Responses to 9/11 and Coronavirus: If You Tried to Downplay 9/11 Death Toll, ‘You Would’ve Sounded Like a Sociopath’
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes opened his show reflecting on the anniversary of September 11th and looking at how the nation responded in the wake of the terror attacks on that horrible day and how it has responded and is continuing to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, particularly those in leadership.
He noted those moments of “civic solidarity” across the country these past few months and said, “That national sense of unity and grief and solemnity and tribute, when it’s happened, has happened in spite of our leadership, not because of it. And often has been totally absent from this catastrophe. To a shocking degree.”
Hayes reviewed the admission President Donald Trump made to Bob Woodward about downplaying the severity of the virus early on. “We still have people from the president on down, his allies and his mouthpieces and propagandists on Trump TV, engaged in a truly sick game of whataboutism.”
He said he’s wondered what it would have been like after 9/11 to walk around New York and tell people that “this isn’t really that big of a deal” because of how many people die from the flu or other reasons. “You would’ve sounded like a sociopath. In fact, you probably would have gotten punched in the face.”
Hayes compared the national reaction to 9/11 to the national reaction over the coronavirus::
“A certain faction of American politics — American conservatives, specifically, some of them — immediately saw hay to make out of 9/11, a way to marshal all that grief and anguish to a political end. They consolidated political power and waged war abroad culture war at home. Many people who describe themselves as liberals even cheered them on. And the same right wing movement that did that now looks at us losing a thousand Americans a day — fast approaching 200,000 lives lost, and they say there is nothing to be gained this time around politically. So they just snicker or wave it away or pretend it’s not happening. As if after 9/11 people said, ‘No, no the towers did not come down,’ or ‘Buildings collapse all the time.’ It’s denial and a lie. And it can’t help but make you feel a certain kind of rage, a rage that frankly I struggle to control a convey on this program every night, night in and night out, because it’s not over. The pandemic is still happening right now. And our president is not stopping. He’s making it worse.”
You can watch above, via MSNBC.
