Cuomo and Analyst: Trump's No Churchill, or Even George W. Bush

March 14th, 2020 7:05 AM

CNN spent most of Wednesday night trashing the president's address to the nation on the Coronavirus. CNN’s Chris Cuomo proved that there’s nothing Donald Trump can do that will meet with the liberal network’s approval. The host offered a scathing review of President Trump’s Oval Office talk. Speaking with CNN political analyst David Gregory, Cuomo panned the performance.

Let's talk about it. Because I think you and I may have a different read on it. That he's more measured and he's not blaming us and he's not blaming Democrats, okay. I have never seen him give a speech and seem as nervous as he was tonight. Now part of that is what we call Prompter Trump. He didn't write it. He's not familiar with it. It is hard for him to follow the teleprompter, ok that's stylistic, but his breathing. What was his tone? He did not vibe a lot of ‘I've got this’ to the nation.

Gregory concurred with Cuomo’s assessment that the President seemed disconnected from his speech and emanated an aura of uncertainty:

No, I agree with that. And, look, he's not a natural politician. So we live in an age when people are gonna look at this and they're gonna evaluate his leadership with a partisan lens…Yeah, he's not accustomed to giving this kind of speech. I thought he kind of ran through some of the language instead of really talking us through these points. There was still self-congratulation about how great the response has been. He talked about we're all in this together. Well, I didn't hear any empathy for our allies around the globe, like the Italians, and what they're going through, as a country.…

Then Gregory compared this situation to major wars: 

This is not an existential threat to the United States. But, you know, Winston Churchill, when he was preparing Great Britain for The Blitz, which did face an existential threat to the idea of liberty in the U.K., he - he summoned the resolve and the courage of the British people then. George W. Bush, after 9/11, whether you agree with him, or disagree with the policies that followed, he captured the emotion and created the resolve in the American people to respond.

When you're comparing events that killed thousands to a virus with an American death toll of 37, you might be exaggerating, not reassuring people. Gregory thought Trump wasn't harsh enough: "When he talks about this being not a crisis but, quote, a temporary moment of time. I think he hurts himself. And I think he confuses the public."

PS: Chris Cuomo was much more positive about his guest, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Why does CNN let this interview occur? It ended with "Well, Governor Andrew Cuomo to everybody else, my big brother, I'm proud of you. I love you. Thank you for explaining the hard parts and what's going to have to happen, so that we can get to a better place in the future. God bless." The governor replied to his little brother "Proud of you."

The Democrat News Network rolls on.