Donald Trump Beats George Stephanopoulos In Presidential Debate Warmup
ABC should really be ashamed of themselves, but then again, mainstream media has no shame anymore. So they probably don’t.
In a despicable, perhaps even desperate, attempt to ambush President Donald Trump, ABC turned what should have been a town hall for undecided voters to talk to the President into a warmup debate for Trump. His sparring partner was none other than Clinton family cohort himself, George Stephanopoulos.
The ABC political pundit and Good Morning America co-host donated a total of $75,000 to non-profit organizations founded by Bill Clinton from the years 2012 to 2014. He did not disclose these charitable donations willingly and would have moderated one of the 2016 Presidential debates if not for pressure from Republicans. He was just the right paper soldier for the Disney-owned news network to trot out there to go a few rounds with The Donald.
One of the big talking points was the COVID-19 response. Stephanopoulos pressed the President about the nation’s response and the Woodard tapes:
Stephanopoulos You say a lot of people got things wrong. I mean, you mentioned China at the top right there. All through January and February, you — you — you were downplaying by your own admission the severity of the crisis, that you didn't want to panic people.
Trump Not downplaying, George. George...
Stephanopoulos But let me finish the question first.
Trump Not downplaying.
Stephanopoulos But those are your words.
Trump I don’t want to drive our nation into a panic. I'm a cheerleader for this nation. I'm the one that closed up our country. I closed it up long before any of the experts thought I should and saved hundreds of thousands of lives. But when I closed it, I put a ban on our country and the ban was a very important ban because China was heavily...
Stephanopoulos I wanted to ask you about China, because...
Trump — China was heavily infected...
Stephanopoulos And that’s...
Trump By the way, I read where other people said do it, no people that I saw said do it and I know they said security advisers and others. I put a ban on when it wasn't at all popular. Joe Biden said I was xenophobic because I put the ban on and I thought that was a very unfair — and by the way, he's totally taken that back, but I’m not sure he knows what it means
Imagine if President Trump had issued alarmist warnings about the coronavirus in January? For one, no one would have believed him. It seems as if people believe the complete opposite of what he says. In all seriousness, releasing the information at that moment could have caused a flurry of panic that could have resulted in more deaths and merchandise shortages than what otherwise would have occurred.
Stephanopolous did not mention that (as of this writing) 40% of the nation’s coronavirus deaths have come from five Democrat-led states: New York (33,141), New Jersey (16,166), California (14,615), Massachusetts (9,225) and Illinois (8,564). He did not bring up Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus malpractice of sending elderly patients back into nursing homes. Trump hit back by mentioning how low America’s death totals are compared to the initial models that were projecting death totals in the millions.
He was also quick to bring up the fact that it was Democrats who blocked the latest round of stimulus relief.
Speaking of poor leadership in Democrat-run states, as Trump pressed on about the ineffectiveness of leaders in states like California and Illinois, “little wise guy” Stephanopoulos wanted Trump to refrain from singling out the Dem cities:
Stephanopoulos Why not call the speaker down to your office, hammer it out in the Oval Office?
Trump What they want is a bailout of Democrat-run states that have doing poorly and, you know, I don't think this is the right…
Stephanopoulos Why do you keep talking about Democratic states and Democratic cities?
Trump They are.
Stephanopoulos They're American states and American cities.
Trump No, Democrat-run states are the ones that are doing badly, George. If you look at New York, if you look at Illinois, if you look at a lot of different places, they're doing poorly, and cities in particular, cities. I mean, these cites are being run so poorly…
Stephanopoulos Don't you have a responsibility for those cities and states, as well?
Trump — largely because — largely because — but largely because of the crime. They don't want to do anything about crime. Sanctuary cities, they have sanctuary cities where they're protecting criminals. They have things that the Republicans don't have. So they are. I mean, don't want to say Dem — look, I'm the President of everybody, but I don't want to say it, but they're Democrat-run cities. It is what it is.
Stephanopoulos inauspiciously tried to pin the violence in these blue cities on Trump. The POTUS could have done a better job at hammering home the fact about the riots raging unchecked, but his rebuttal was suffice. Trump threw in a nice little uppercut by pointing out to the audience that Stephanopoulos is a Democrat.
Healthcare took center stage when the former White House communications director accused Trump of wanting to “strike down” ObamaCare. POTUS responds:
Trump We have run it really well, but we also have now — other — if you go Department of Labor, a — our great secretary, as you know and you know him well, we have other alternatives to ObamaCare that are 50 percent less expensive and they’re actually better.
Stephanopoulos It's been three-and-a-half years.
Trump George. It's been 40 years since you had good health care. Never really had good health care in this country. This country has never had it, but when you say that Biden doesn't want to do it, everybody else does. Bernie does, he agreed to the manifesto as I call it, the agreement with Bernie, is that you're going to go to socialized medicine.
In conclusion, Trump delivered a solid enough performance against formidable competition in a booby trap of an event. Biden better be taking notes down there in his basement.
