Showing why CNN continues to lose ratings, 51-year-old host Jake Tapper got into it with 71-year-old White House economist and trade czar Peter Navarro, showing why CNN isn’t a news organization but a propaganda wing of the Democrat Party. Tapper found out what happens when he confronts someone brighter, more informed and articulate on the issues than him, confronting Navarro about recently released tape recordings by former Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward. Promoting his new book, “Rage,” Woodwars said 74-year-old President Donald Trump downplayed the severity of the coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 epidemic. Tapper wanted Narvarro to admit that Trump downplayed the virus, failing to respond seriously to the growing epidemic early on. Navarro was simply too informed to be entrapped by Tapper in a false narrative.
What’s blatantly false about Woodward’s narrative is the way he took Trump words out of context, using them to advance a Democrat narrative that Trump botched the management of the coronavirus crisis. Woodward never asked Trump whether “downplaying” the virus to avoid panicking the public meant that he didn’t take all necessary measures to control the spread. Tapper isn’t concerned about the truth, he’s concerned about helping 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden beat Trump Nov. 3. CNN has no other objective other than defeating Trump even if it involves using any propaganda, any disinformation, any distortion to help discredit Trump. Tapper found out it’s different preaching to like-minded talk show hosts or pundits on CNN, all yucking it up at the president’s expense. Tapper simply doesn’t have the facts or the skills to handle someone of Narvarro’s stature
Navarro didn’t buy Tapper’s simplistic premise that Trump saying he “downplayed” the virus to the public meant the U.S. government wasn’t doing everything scientifically possible to mitigate the spread of the deadly virus. Early on in January through March 11, the day the World Health Organization [WHO] declared the virus a global pandemic, Tapper knows that Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other politicians weren’t sheltering in place or wearing masks. Early on in the crisis, there simply weren’t enough cases and deaths to draw the kind of 20/20 hindsight alarm that Tapper tried to bring up. Trump’s statement to Woodward wasn’t about not taking the virus seriously, it was about not getting too alarmist with the public. “He was misleading the public. Why?” Tapper asked Navarro. When Narvarro said, “No he wasn’t,” Tapper got frustrated and stopped the interview.
What kind of journalists is so thin-skinned he doesn’t let his guest answer the question anyway he likes, then draws his own conclusions? Instead, Tapper broke off the interview when he realized the Navarro was not validating his narrative about what happened with Trump’s interview with Woodward. “You’re not answering my question, Peter,” Tapper interrupted. “The question is about—you’re talking about what you were doing privately,” implying that Trump held a private view of the virus from the one he expressed to the public. Navarro told Tapper that he disagreed with the facts as presented by Woodward, telling Tapper that President Trump didn’t mislead the public at all. No one, including Trump, knew the extent of the Covid-19 global pandemic, certainly not what would eventually happen in the Untied States. Tapper acts like Trump has a crystal ball, knew the future.
Tapper may not recall 48-year-old California Gov. Gavin Newsom telling the public March 19, eight days after WHO’s announcement, that 25.5 million or 55% of California would be infected with Covod-19 by mid-May. Newsome relied on the best scientific experts at the Univ. of Washington’s Institute for Health Care Metrics. Why would Tapper assume Trump was deliberately misleading the public? Tapper wants to promote the Democrat 2020 campaign narrative that Trump botched the Covid-19 crisis, requiring competent leadership like Democrat nominee Joe Biden. Tapper’s tete-a-tete with Navarro shows the extremes to which CNN goes to promote the Democrat party narrative, regardless of the truth. “He was straightforward,” Navarro told Tapper. “No he wasn’t . . Just answer the question. It’ a very basic question . . He was not honest with the American people,” Tapper insisted.
When do journalists argue with invited guests who offer potentially different points-of-view? When Tapper realized he couldn’t bully Navarro, he through a fit and cut off the interview. Tapper knows that CNN and Democrat-friendly number-cruncher Nate Silver said Sept. 12 that the outcome of the Elector College was in doubt for Democrats. Tapper’s very aware that Biden’s slipping in battleground state polls, reflecting Democrats dirty tactics now affecting swing voters. When Biden said yesterday that Trump was responsible for all Covid-19 deaths, voters are starting to get turned off. Tapper can’t tell that he’s part of the problem carrying the water for the Democrat Party, not a healthy position for a credentialed news network. “You can’t say that. I answered the question repeatedly. You just didn’t like the answer,” Narvarro told Tapper, prompting Jake to pull the plug on the interview.
