A spokesman for the Republican National Committee took issue with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s claim that President Trump’s administration has given no clear timeline for when Americans will have access to more personal protective equipment amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Nobody can give you a clear answer on, ‘OK, fine, we think there aren’t enough masks. By this date, there’s going to be this number of masks … of face shields available,’” Cooper said during a Monday night segment with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Where’s the timeline? Where’s the schedule?”
The RNC’s rapid response director fired back after the show, claiming that Cooper would have known about PPE timelines if the network ran full coverage of the White House coronavirus task force’s near daily press briefings.
“CNN’s Anderson Cooper claims no timeline for PPE has been provided after CNN refused to air press conferences during which military officers provided a timeline for PPE,” Steve Guest tweeted.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper claims no timeline for PPE has been provided after CNN refused to air press conferences during which military officers provided a timeline for PPE pic.twitter.com/dUgP0s7HZM
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 7, 2020
Guest then tweeted clips of various press conferences on government updates on coronavirus medical equipment.
Here are some helpful clips for Anderson Cooper and Chuck Schumer:
April 5: Rear Adm. John Polowczyk: have a military plan to “rapidly deploy” thousands of ventilators where needed across the country pic.twitter.com/eOgtNQ6rsI
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 7, 2020
April 5: Rear Adm. John Polowczyk: using advanced data to geographically align flow of millions of medical supplies.pic.twitter.com/qNiaYyoqq1
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 7, 2020
April 2: Rear Admiral John Polowczyk: using advanced analytics to expand and coordinate the supply chain and industrial basepic.twitter.com/cwGxyQpzdI
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 7, 2020
March 29: Admiral Brett Giroir: we’ve “highly significantly increased” testing, new test methods approved in a “record time” pic.twitter.com/vDNxGHcubx
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 7, 2020
CNN and MSNBC have at times turned away from airing full coverage of the press briefings on the coronavirus pandemic.
A CNN representative told the Hill in March, “If the White House wants to ask for time on the network, they should make an official request. Otherwise, we will make our own editorial decisions.” According to an MSNBC representative, the network turned away “because the information no longer appeared to be valuable to the important ongoing discussion around public health.”
