Fox News politics editor complains senators talked too much about COVID-19's impact on minority populations
Chris Stirewalt also attacked Sen. Bernie Sanders for asking about treatment access for working-class people during Senate hearing
Published
Citation From the May 12, 2020, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered Overtime
CHRIS STIREWALT (FOX NEWS POLITICS EDITOR): I think what we need is you and me to do subtitles under these hearings so it can be senators talking and you can say, "I'm in a really bad primary and need to show my mega-MAGA stripes in this, so I'm going to bleat about this stuff." Or, "I'm from a state where I'm a white senator with a large minority population, so I need to bleat about this stuff."
And so much of course of these hearings is flummery, right, because they're -- it's not about getting answers; it's about posturing.
Now, much of this hearing was quite good. Much of this hearing was quite revealing. I thought that the way Fauci dealt with Rand Paul was very indicative of his overall approach, which is he tries to be humble, he tries to go easy, go slow, and when you have somebody like Paul, the guy who brought the coronavirus to the Republican Senate lunch, scolding him about thinking he knows everything, Fauci could have gone right for that and said, "Why didn't you wear a mask, bro?" But he didn't. He was calm and measured. That's why people look to him and that's why people trust him because he does keep his cool.
HARRIS FAULKNER (ANCHOR): You know, we did hear from Sen. Sanders in all of this. And for a little bit of his time, because each senator got about the same few minutes, he went after President Trump. Let's watch.
...
STIREWALT: One of Sen. Sanders' other questions was whether or not working-class people should be made to die while the wealthy enjoy the benefits of testing. Again, not questioning -- it's not a question. If you brought a man from Mars here and said, "OK. Here's the situation. We have this hideous virus that is now working its way through the heartland of America, having already ravaged a number of big cities. They're having a hearing with some of the most important political leaders and their lead scientist. Let's listen in." What the man from Mars would say is, "I think everyone must be on drugs," because you have senators asking questions -- you have senators asking political questions of scientists, who they claim they want to talk to because they are going to bring so much sciencey science to everything. It's really -- I mean, look, you go into a pandemic with the Congress you have, not the Congress you want, but, you know, you are going to get what you are going to get.