CNN cut away from covering the White House's press conference about the Cornoavirus and the government's efforts to contain the threat to air their town hall with Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg.
Vice President Mike Pence was tapped to lead the U.S. government's efforts to reduce the spread of the virus. It was also revealed a vaccine for Cornoavirus could take up to a year to be created, tested, and then distributed.
"We’re going to stay obviously on top of this story. This is a clearly major development. We’ll watch it very, very closely," CNN anchor Wolf Blizter told the audience before turning it over to Anderson Cooper to start Bloomberg's town hall.
Cooper's first question to Bloomberg was if he had confidence in the Trump administration's efforts to contain the virus.
"No! Number one, he fired the pandemic team two years ago. Number two, he’s been defunding Centers for Disease Control, so we don’t have the experts in place that we need. I hope he’s right that the virus doesn’t come here, that nobody gets sick, that would be a wonderful outcome. But the bottom line is we are not ready for this kind of thing." Bloomberg said.
Considering the gravity of the situation, you would think CNN would stick to airing the press conference. After all, multiple employees at their network have been decrying about the lack of press briefings since they stopped over a year ago.
"The last 'daily' White House press briefing was 170 days ago," was a headline from CNN Editor-at-large Chris Cillizza in 2019.
Daily briefings have evaporated. But "almost on a daily basis, somebody from the W.H. press shop, a high-level official like Sarah Sanders or Kellyanne Conway, is doing an exclusive interview with Fox," @Acosta says https://t.co/mlEZBB45vm
— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) March 4, 2019
Fmr. WH Press Secretary @joelockhart on the lack of press briefings under Trump: "No one's asked the President's press secretary if the President's read the [Mueller] report and been able to go into questions, what does he think about page 123? So the questions do matter." pic.twitter.com/fuxybO7YYp
— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) May 19, 2019
“Yes. Your taxpayer dollars are indeed paying [White House press sec.] Stephanie Grisham to avoid you, ironically, like it’s her job.”
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) January 7, 2020
Tonight on #TheRidiculist, @andersoncooper takes on a new year & new record… 301 days since since the last formal White House news briefing. pic.twitter.com/HQX7tFJQr9
Must not be that important then.
