Greg Gutfeld defended Donald Trump lying to the public about the seriousness of coronavirus by likening him to a careful doctor not wanting to needlessly alarm a patient.
As you probably know by now, Bob Woodward has come forward with recordings of Trump privately admitting that coronavirus is five times more deadly than the flu at the same time that he repeatedly likened it to the flu in public. Woodward also has a recording of Trump admitting about the virus, “I wanted to always play it down.”
How many of the 190,000 dead Americans might be alive today if Trump had leveled with the public? We know that Kristin Urquiza’s father is at least one person. Herman Cain is probably another.
But Gutfeld, the guy who, in 2017, condemned Trump’s “very fine people” on both sides remarks about the Charlottesville neo-Nazi demonstration and now calls it “a hoax,” reached deep into his derriere to pull out this defense of Trump. Then again, I’ve long said that Gutfeld puts the “ass” in asinine.
Gutfeld's soliloquy began with cohost Juan Williams asking, “Why did he keep saying this is like the flu?”
Gutfeld had no good answer, of course, so he came up with this arrogant piece of crap:
GUTFELD: First, let's go back to your incorrect comparison to Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Those were both immediate acute events. We didn’t need information to be managed by our world leader. We saw what was happening.
However, this, what we’re dealing with right now, which is called a novel virus for a reason – it’s new. It was a slow-rolling phenomenon, alright? In which uncertainty played a huge role – and get this - when the experts were often wrong! They told us untruths about the masks, they said we shouldn’t close the borders. They said a lot of things. They said go about your lives normally. Remember that? Go to the parades. You know what? Still go on those cruises. Experts were actually saying that. So, a lot of this stuff was adjusted.
Gutfeld inadvertently made the right point. “Adjusting” a position on the coronavirus as information becomes known is quite different from lying about its severity, which is what Trump has admitted doing.
Yet nobody, not even Williams pointed out any of Gutfeld's string of fallacies that ran throughout his commentary.
Gutfeld went on to admit that Trump lied, but he found a way to defend it. Until, maybe Gutfeld decides it's in his best interest to declare something else happened.
GUTFELD: [I]t’s a booger dressed as a bombshell. It's nothing and the reason why it's nothing is it's so obviously nothing.
Trump told Woodward that information because to him, it was an obvious truth. That leaders know stuff that sometimes they keep from the public that they have to manage because that is their role as a leader so you don't make it worse. There is the comfortable and well-known phrase "keep calm and carry on." It's well known for a reason.
Experts, experts that I talked to personally – every time I talked to ‘em said the panic can be worse than the pandemonium. I sometimes disagreed. But when a doctor, when a doctor sees a spot on your X-ray, he doesn’t run in and say, “My God, you have cancer, you’re going to die!” He says, “Hold on a second, this could be dense tissue, we want to look at it again.”
Even a dishonest ass like Gutfeld has to know this is a BS comparison. The right comparison would be a doctor coming in and saying there’s nothing to worry about, it will go away. Trump didn’t say, “Hold on, let’s investigate.” He told Americans the virus would go away. And, as Williams said, Trump repeatedly compared it to the flu in public after privately telling Woodward it was five times more deadly.
Perhaps aware that his Trump defense couldn’t stand scrutiny, Gutfeld changed subjects to attack the media with his asinine brand of malicious humor. Oh, and he took a swipe at the reporting of his own colleague, Jennifer Griffin, while he was at it. What a guy!
GUTFELD: Imagine if the media, if the media were your doctor. Every single X-ray – “might be cancer. Sources say you could be dead in six months. I’ve confirmed anonymous sources that you may have HIV. You want to find out more? You’re gonna have to tune in at 8 o’clock and find out. And then, that’s when we tell you, ‘Well, you know what? We exaggerated a little bit. But at least we got you to watch.’”
This entire story is based on ginning up people so they can run to their TVs and go “Oh, my God, my hair’s on fire again!”
And lastly, I want to throw to a montage of what the press was saying at the time Trump was shutting down travel.
Gutfeld sounded desperate and hysterical as he yelled “Roll montage!” We saw clips of some of Fox’s favorite targets suggesting that the coronavirus would not be serious. But again, there’s no proof they thought differently or said anything different in private. Which, as even Gutfeld has to know, is what's wrong with Trump's comments to Woodward.
Unfortunately for Gutfeld, nothing anyone else did or said changes the fact that we have recordings of Trump admitting the coronavirus was very serious at the same time we have him on video claiming the exact opposite. And even if you believe Trump spoke like a “good leader,” 190,000 dead Americans is not the outcome of good leadership. The U.S. has one of the highest death rates from coronavirus per capita and by far the highest number of cases, adjusted for population.
Gutfeld was merely toeing the Fox line. Media Matters notes that a slew of other Fox personalities excused Trump’s inexcusable behavior, too.
You can watch Gutfeld below, from the September 9, 2020 The Five.
