Tiffany Cross Causes Trump 'Diversity Director' To Melt Down On Live TV

By Karoli Kuns — July 25, 2020

Bruce LeVell heads up Trump's "National Diversity Coalition," he usually lands on Fox News and Fox Business where he can usually just parrot the usual talking points before moving on to the next talking point, but he was no match for Tiffany Cross, who was first in the host rotation for Joy Reid's empty seat on AM Joy.

The clip above is about halfway into the interview, where she has already taken apart his standard bragging points, which were pretty lame to begin with: Lowest unemployment in the Black community, 10-year funding for HBCUs and more argle-bargle.

She moved on to COVID-19, reviewing the state of things in the country,.,

Let me switch gears, something very serious. That's 146,000 dead Americans. Donald Trump has said this virus just going to disappear in hot weather. He initially called it a hoax. His administration has gone out of their way to discredit Dr. Fauci. In fact, Sinclair Broadcast Group, the very conservative group buying up a lot of local television stations are set to air a conspiracy theory over the weekend that suggests that Dr. Fauci invented the virus. Given that this kind of rhetoric is coming from your side of the aisle and given that this virus disproportionately impacts people who look like you and me, how do you think of the president's response and what can he do better, keeping in mind that a lot of people impacted by this virus are watching right now, so I would remind you to be sensitive of people who have lost family, who are survivors of the 146,000 Americans who have died.

There's a lot packed into that question. First, the Sinclair propaganda, which should horrify any candidate for President and cause a loud denunciation. Suggesting Dr. Fauci unleashed this hell virus is just an evil and insidious thing to broadcast on local news and I guarantee you Trump is not at all sorry about it. And neither was Levell.

"Well, you know, I would be caution you to be sensitive on how you're delivering the message," he mansplained. "Let's be fair across the board."

There is nothing to be fair about. 146,000 Americans are dead because Donald Trump tossed out the pandemic playbook. That man should be ashamed that he's even trying to defend that.

We've tested 51 million people. There's 328 million citizens in the United States. We're number one in the world in testing. We have a vaccine the corner that's probably due around december. And number one, thank God the president shut down the country and saved millions of lives on his leadership in January or we would have a catastrophe. So I think that runs flat. I think we've done a great job. And the Fauci, the president, he just complimented him yesterday in the press conference.

Cross interrupted him then to point out that Dr. Fauci has been sent to the sidelines, the Trump administration has been doing opposition research on him, and Peter Navarro published an op-ed slamming him.

"You're not going to sit here and make like there's chaos going on between the president and Dr. Fauci," LeVell grumbled.

Again, Cross laid out facts, and again challenged him to admit that the national response is a huge failure, which he refused to do, of course.

She pushed him again:

CROSS: You think 146,000 dead Americans was an appropriate response from this?

LEVELL: We as a country, we --

CROSS: We as a country, yes, but i'm asking about Donald Trump.

LEVELL: The President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, and we as the country, Tiffany, have done a wonderful job combatting this China virus that's overtaking our country --

CROSS: I want to correct you. You lead the diversity coalition and you're calling -- you're using these racist terms like the China virus --

LEVELL: it came from China.

CROSS: Covid-19.

LEVELL: It came from China.

CROSS: Yes, yeah, but I would no sooner say that you had the MAGA virus than I would call this the China virus. That's ridiculous and you know that. And somebody leading the diversity coalition, that's clearly offensive to the Asian American members of this community, it seems like an easy thing to not do that, as the head of the diversity coalition. An easy thing!

From there, it devolved into the usual filibuster, with LeVell yelling at Cross to answer HIS question about where the virus originated.

It was at that point that she laughed at him for saying that he thought the president has done a good job and there was nothing different he can do or could have done.

"You think that's funny?" LeVell shot at her with faux outrage.

"To keep from crying, sir," she replied. "I find it preposterous --"

You can tell he's just fuming by now, and it didn't get better when she asked him if Trump promised him anything for his support. No, by then he was in full meltdown mode.

I don't know why the bookers for AMJoy thought it was a good idea to bring on a Fox News propagandist. This guy has been trained to turn on the talking points and repeat them back ad infinitum over and over with little thought and certainly no attention to fact. It was unfair to Tiffany Cross and unfair to viewers, who don't need to see lies, racist tropes, and repeated talking points.