Let's be clear: No one should buy Trump's excuses that he downplayed the virus because he didn't want to "spark a panic." This man specifically uses fear and panic as a campaign tactic every single day, and if it benefited him politically to do so, he would have gladly sparked a panic. It just didn't benefit him.
This is why I really have a serious problem with automatons like Senator John Kennedy rolling onto CNN's air and stonewalling before defending the indefensible. I am not the only one. Host Pamela Brown was appalled that he wouldn't actually react to the very real fact that Donald Trump lied to save himself at the expense of millions. The economic expense, the human cost, the way our lives will be forever changed -- these are a consequence of Donald Trump's greed and ambition, but for Senator John Kennedy, they're just not that big of a deal.
Ahead of the clip above, he stonewalled her by claiming he doesn't pay attention to "gotcha books" in a robotic voice devoid of all humanity.
.@SenJohnKennedy “These gotcha books don’t really interest me that much.”@PamelaBrownCNN: “He’s on the record.”
Kennedy: “These gotcha books don’t really interest me that much.”
Brown: “He did 18 interviews.”
Kennedy: “These gotcha books don’t really interest me that much.”— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) September 9, 2020
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) September 9, 2020
Finally, Pamela Brown ran out of patience with him.
"Okay. Senator, let me just -- I let you talk. I wanted to hear what you had to say. But the bottom line is he told Bob Woodward privately that this was a deadly virus and that it was airborne," she reminded him. "Didn't the public, didn't the citizens in your home state of Louisiana deserve to know that as well so that they could change their behavior appropriately to protect themselves?"
Kennedy came back with the same nonsense. "Let me say a word about this infatuation in Washington with who said what to whom," he began. "I learned pretty quickly--"
"No, senator, I'm sorry. I'm not going to let you do this," she cut in. "I understand there is so much politics right now, we're two months away from an election. But this is life and death. You had 5,000 people that have died in Louisiana from coronavirus."
"Republicans are reluctant, as you are now to ever criticize this president," she noted before dropping the key question. "But as a human being, how can you be okay with this?"
Oh Pamela, you're assuming he's a human being. See above where the robot Kennedy repeats the same garbage again and again.
Kennedy's answer to her was to say that actions speak louder than words, so Brown tried again.
"The president knew in February, we have him on tape telling Bob Woodward that this was airborne. And yet he went on to hold six rallies packed with people that were not wearing masks. And he called the coronavirus the Democrats' hoax. Those were actions he took. And he had the knowledge. That's okay with you?," she pressed.
His lame reply: "Well, you're going to have to talk to the President and Mr. Woodward."
Classic dodge coming up next. No transcript, he can't possibly comment because no transcript! Never mind the recordings, he hasn't seen the transcript!
So she plays the tape. And confronts him again. And gets the same tired talking point about panic, a talking point that is utter bullshit because Trump uses panic and fear every. damn. day. Fear of antifa. Fear of Black people in the suburbs. Fear that the markets will crash if he's not elected. Fear of literally everything.
Donald Trump is responsible for all of this, and any senator who denies that or tries to soften it is as guilty as he.
Trump knew and they're covering for him.
