Fox News host Dana Perino prompted an interesting exchange on Wednesday when she challenged Symone Sanders, senior adviser to the Biden campaign, to come up with “one example of a lie” from the White House dealing with the current coronavirus pandemic.
The question came after Perino played a clip of Joe Biden saying, “You can build a truly representative democracy with more facts than lies.” Though Biden does not name Donald Trump or specifically address the White House’s response in the clip of an address he made to Columbia Law School’s graduating class, Perino assumes that the former vice-president is talking about the impeached president. She asks Sanders to confirm what specifically Biden is referring to.
“The facts bore out for themselves here,” Sanders responds. “And the reality is there has been a lot of misinformation touted about the coronavirus, and some of that, in fact, has come from the White House.” She later added, “What we are currently dealing with is a public health crisis that has become an economic crisis, and that frankly is the cost of complacency from this administration.”
Sanders points out that the White House’s failure to act in the months of January and February led to the current catastrophe that the country is now dealing with. Though Trump this week said that he sees the million-plus confirmed COVID-19 cases as a “badge of honor,” Biden disagrees and “will continue to call it out while talking about his bold vision for the future,” Sanders insisted.
The answer wasn’t sufficient enough for Perino, who suggested that Sanders could not come up with one specific lie from the administration and admitted, “I can’t think of one.” When Sanders laughed it off saying “there are so many,” she pressed the author of No, You Shut Up! to come up with “even just one example.”
Right off the bat Sanders cited Trump’s comments in the early days of the pandemic that everyone who wanted a test could get a test. “How about that lie?” Sanders quipped before also pointing out the lie about states having all the PPE they need.
It’s not clear if Perino believed she could steer Sanders into a gotcha moment, but in the end the TV anchor had to essentially admit that Sanders was right.