Multimedia journalist David Leavitt, whose Twitter timeline is one long, hate-filled temper tantrum, decided to highlight a clip from MSNBC News Anchor Brian Williams. Williams used to be the anchor for NBC’s Nightly News, but he got suspended for six months and sent to the cable news station for lying. He essentially made up stories about his journalistic escapades out of whole cloth.
In the clip that Leavitt cheers, Williams took a swipe at comments made by Geraldo Rivera. As much as this sounds strange to say, I would place Rivera in the bucket of decent liberals who are trying to explain to their side how badly they are dividing the nation with non-stop Trump hate 24/7. In an appearance on Fox and Friends, Rivera credited President Trump and his administration for the development of effective COVID-19 vaccinations and other treatments in under a year.
Williams, an indecent liberal, decided this idea was worth mocking. He sarcastically praised Trump’s FDR-like response to the pandemic while juxtaposing pictures of the president golfing in a satirical clip. He compared the results of the president’s pandemic response to his less-than-successful ventures. Trump’s work will end the pandemic just like Trump Steaks ended world hunger, Trump Water ended thirst, and Trump University lifted up the uneducated.
Brian Williams 🔥 🔥 🔥 pic.twitter.com/MCTxK3i0NV
— David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) November 21, 2020
It is always amazing to see the lefty media that was screaming about how little Donald Trump paid in taxes a month ago then decide he was a complete failure in business. You can’t have it both ways. Either he’s wealthy and should pay more taxes, or he is a complete failure at business. The commentators and their fans never see this irony.
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However, the comparison to FDR is actually more offensive. President Trump did not create dozens of agencies to manage the response centrally. Rather, he ripped out the bureaucratic red tape to safely expedite agency approvals. The bureaucracy was ordered to facilitate the response, not define it.
Collectively, the policies and directives from the president were a whole-of-government response to the pandemic. Economic advisors and bright young staffers worked with the private sector to repurpose manufacturing lines to make needed equipment and supplies. Project Airbridge was a public-private partnership that identified and airlifted supplies globally at an intense rate for 30 days. The public health service mobilized to staff, supply, and stand up drive-through testing stations in partnership with chain pharmacies across the nation.
Hospital ships were delivered, weeks ahead of schedule, to New York City and Los Angeles. Temporary hospitals were built all over the country by the Army Corps of Engineers. And rather than use the power of the Defense Production Act, the Task Force built partnerships with American companies in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and medical supplies. Rather than a top-down approach, the federal Coronavirus Task Force worked with state leaders and public health professionals to guide and resource local responses.
Williams would know this if anything from the daily Task Force briefings other than peacocking journalists with their awesome Trump burn-of-the-day had been covered. Were there hiccups? Sure, the Task Force was building the plane while they were flying it. But Williams’ characterization completely dismisses the effort and hard work of thousands of Americans who should be proud of what they accomplished in response to a global pandemic.
Rivera was doing something rare in the current moment. He was giving credit for an accomplishment that shattered previous expectations. Williams had to mock it for partisan purposes that create more division. In a wide-ranging interview on the Glenn Beck podcast, author Douglas Murray made an observation that drives home just how dangerous behavior like Williams’ is. He is a news anchor, not a late-night host. After spending several months in America recently, Murray noted:
One of the tests of whether or not you can get back to a healthy situation in America is can you credit your opponents with having done anything right? Can you credit, for instance, that the UAE deal, Bahrain, Sudan, can you credit that Donald Trump did something good in there? If they can’t and I haven’t heard that from anyone. With all the people who talked about peace in the Middle East, they just didn’t ever credit it. It would do so much good in America if somebody could credit a person on the opposite side when they’ve done something right.
Geraldo Rivera did and got mocked for it. I hope he keeps up this balance because it makes me more inclined to hear him out when I disagree with him.
Murray has a deep affection for America and some really astute observations about our current moment from his visit. It is like hearing from a dear second cousin that you have always really liked. Brian Williams should take a listen. Not only were Williams’ comments simplistic, showing almost no understanding of the facts, but they also make things worse. There is no way back to any semblance of unity if this type of unnecessary snark continues.
WATCH the full interview with Douglas Murray and share it with five other people.
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