MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Joe Scarborough claimed Tuesday that everybody saw the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic coming President Donald Trump.
“We’ve heard that nobody could’ve seen this coming. The fact is, everybody saw this coming. Everybody saw this coming in early January,” Scarborough said.
Scarborough on Trump and the Coronavirus: Unlike him, “Everybody saw this coming in early January” pic.twitter.com/rB2ZZNgzb6
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 1, 2020
On the contrary, the entire network of MSNBC did not once mention the coronavirus or the pandemic rapidly spreading across China until January 18, not “early January.”
Neither Scarborough or his co-host Mika Brzezinski mentioned coronavirus until six days later on January 24. In fact, the first mention of the novel virus on “Morning Joe,” was in an interview with the show’s “medical contributor” who said Americans should be much more worried about the seasonal flu.
“Americans do not need to panic. The Chinese are already panicking, as they should, because this virus is spreading all through the Central parts of China. And, it’s a new virus, it has never been seen before, so, its mechanism of spreading is not quite known yet. What I would suggest, however, is that Americans take this as a wake-up call for seasonal flu,” said Dr. Dave Campbell.
Campbell suggested Americans should not be scared of the coronavirus as the seasonal flu is likely to kill more people.
“We are not out of the flu season, we have already had 15 million cases of the flu in the U.S., 140,000 hospitalizations. 54 children have died, almost as many as have died from the novel coronavirus,” Campbell said. “We don’t need to be overly concerned yet in the United States about the novel coronavirus.”
CORRECTION: That was the first mention on MSNBC. The first mention on Morning Joe was Jan. 24th, when an “expert” said Americans should worry about the flu, not the Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/aG0BjwHxKj
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 1, 2020
Despite Scarborough’s assumption that the mainstream media saw the coronavirus pandemic coming, there was not a single mention from the Morning Joe’s social media accounts during “early January” — January 1 to 11 — about coronavirus or any pandemic whatsoever.
Instead, early January saw MSNBC and other mainstream media outlets concerned that Trump had put America in the position of a third World War. “Morning Joe’s” featured content was about the American airstrikes that led to the death of Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani.
Headline guests included Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, both of whom suggested America is on the brink of war.
“The United States is absolutely not safer today than before the strike,” Murphy said.
"The United States is absolutely not safer today than before the strike on Thursday." —@ChrisMurphyCT pic.twitter.com/4cLggkLGiJ
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) January 9, 2020
Even in mid-January — January 12 to 20 — “Morning Joe” made no mention of the coronavirus. Instead, the show suggested America’s biggest threat was the man in White House who needed to be impeached.
Scarborough was far more afraid of America’s world posture than any virus. He was more concerned with the idea that the country was in grave danger if Trump was not impeached.
“America’s standing in the world is at risk. Our government and everything that we have believed that it was striving to be is at risk,” Scarborough said.
"America's standing in the world is at risk. Our government and everything that we have believed that it was striving to be is at risk, and Dems are debating what someone may have said on the telephone two years ago." —@JoeNBC pic.twitter.com/O98xi2aJad
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) January 15, 2020
When February rolled around, Trump mentioned the coronavirus in his State of the Union address on Feb. 4, saying his administration was “coordinating with the Chinese government and working closely together on the coronavirus outbreak in China. My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.”
But a few weeks later, during NBC News’ Democratic debate on Feb. 19, the NBC moderators did not ask a single question related to the coronavirus.
