‘You Make It Sound Like a Theme Park Ride!’ CNN’s Brianna Keilar Amazed by Guest’s Framing of ‘The Covid Experience’ Under Trump

CNN commentator Jamal Simmons outlined a few points that President Joe Biden could make during Thursday’s presidential debate, one of them being how former President Donald Trump mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic. But his wording threw anchor Brianna Keilar for a loop (dee-loop).

Much of the day’s coverage has been the debate pre-game, with many guests welcomed to the CNN table to pick apart the two confrontations between Biden and Trump in 2020 but trying to predict how the next debate will go. It’s the first time a sitting president will debate a former president, each of whom has full (or nearly full) presidential terms under their belts, so it’s an unprecedented event. Simmons went into Trump’s record during and after his one-term presidency as possible ammunition for Biden:

Boris Sanchez: Jamal, I’m curious to get your thoughts on what [Gloria Borger] pointed out would be a line of attack from President Biden, because Donald Trump, as we’ve seen so often before, he’s mirroring that line about democracy. He actually posted a Truth Social earlier today saying that President Biden is a threat to democracy. Given the issues that Trump has had legally, he keeps pointing to the White House as the source of his 90-plus indictments and now 34 plus, or 34 convictions, I should say. What are your thoughts on how Biden should handle those attacks?

Simmons: Well, you just reminded me, President Trump also today tweeted about Fox News having my friend Michael Tyler on, the communications director from the [Biden] campaign, having him on. You would think that Donald Trump would be prepping for the debate, not tweeting about what he’s watching on television.

It’s important for the president, for President Biden, to make sure he’s making the contrast very clear from his perspective about what he sees. And I think when you talk to the Democrats in the campaign and some of the other Democrats who are working on this, they think this is a very clear judgment choice between somebody who’s going to protect your freedom and your right to make choices, and somebody who wants to take control and take your freedom and your rights, to take choices away. That either you’re gonna trust Joe Biden — people generally like, even if they don’t necessarily like some of his policies, they really like him — or you’re going to trust this guy who’s a 34-convicted felon who also, you know, has been impeached twice, and really ruined the Covid experience. So, I think that is the case that the Biden folks are going to make.

Keilar: “The Covid experience.” You make it sound like a theme park ride.

Simmons: Oh, yes. And remembering how bad it was as part of the part of the experiment here.

Watch the video above via CNN.