During a very contentious interview with a spokesperson for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, CNN host Poppy Harlow was forced to cut-off senior advisor Mercedes Schlapp and list off all the times the president predicted the COVID-19 crisis would subside on its own.
In the interview, which ran over 15 minutes, the CNN host and the Trump spokesperson repeatedly talked over each other, with Harlow at one time telling her guest that they had plenty of time to discuss the topics at hand and to please let her finish asking her questions.
As host Harlow attempted to press her on the growing caseload of COVID-19 infections, Schlapp attempted to bring former Vice President Joe Biden into the conversation which forced the CNN host to stop her.
“Mercedes, Mercedes, I think it does a disservice,” Harlow interrupted. “We have time so we don’t have to talk over one another. I think it does a disservice to our viewers to do that — let’s not fight, let’s talk about the facts.”
“Here are the facts,” she proceeded. “You said the president didn’t downplay this. Exactly one month ago today, the president said ‘it’s fading away.’ January 22nd in Davos, Switzerland, ‘it’s totally under control.’ February 22nd, ‘we shut it down.’ February 10th it ‘goes away in April with the heat, a lot of people think.’ February 26th ‘the risk to the American people remains low.’ February 28th, quote, ‘this is their new hoax.’ May 8th, ‘It is going to go away without a vaccine,’ that’s what I’m talking about.”
“What the president has been able to accomplish with the working — working with our both Democrat and Republican governors is ensuring that they have the resources they need to combat the coronavirus. This president –,” the spokesperson parried before being pulled up short again.
“They don’t have the resources they need,” Harlow cut in. “Republican Governor Larry Hogan…”
“He praised the president,” Schlapp interrupted. “He praised the president beforehand.”
“Yes, he did,” Harlow explained. “He had to fly in $9 million worth of masks from South Korea because he could not get enough. He said that he was waiting around for the president to run the nation’s response and [it] was hopeless.’
Watch below: