Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner rebuked network contributor Marie Harf after she was critical of the show for not discussing the daily COVID-19 death toll.
The dust-up occurred during Outnumbered on Thursday afternoon during a discussion about California’s outdoor dining restriction. Harf criticized the network for focusing more on lockdown restrictions and less on the coronavirus death toll, which exceeded 3,000 people on Wednesday alone.
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“Yeah, I mean, we are 43 minutes into the show, and we haven’t mentioned yet that 3,000 Americans died yesterday, more than on 9/11, and every day for a while, we are going to have that many American deaths,” Harf said. “I agree that the regulations should be driven by science. I’ve always said that, and I’ve also always said that outdoor is much safer than indoor, so I don’t want people putting in place regulations that aren’t driven by the science. But I think there are public health officials and leaders in this country who are drowning.”
She added, “But as we debate these regulations, we cannot lose sight of the tragedy that is unfolding every single day in this country.”
Following the comments, Faulkner interjected Dagen McDowell to respond to Harf.
“Can I just quickly say because I feel like, Marie, you took a shot at us there, and maybe you felt like it was necessary. I don’t know. But if you don’t think that our hearts are big enough to mourn for the people who we have lost during this pandemic, what exactly are you trying to say?” Faulkner asked. “That is offensive, and it is not true. It is not true. But the best way to protect those people that we love so much is to make sure that the decisions that we make give them longevity after the pandemic as well and to get what we do right based on the science, not just oh my gosh, the numbers are ballooning, let’s just destroy everything in the process of trying to save it.”
“You’re right. We have learned a lot. It didn’t just happen nine days ago,” she said. “It’s been months now. The scientists are again teaching us new stuff. Let’s live by that, but please, keep your judgment someplace where you know you can fact-check it. Because you can’t see my heart and trust me when I tell you it hurts all of us to lose those Americans and people around the world.”
The United States has more COVID-19 diagnoses, 15.4 million, and deaths, slightly more than 290,000, than any other country around the world, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.
