Brianna Keilar Shreds State Rep's Claim That Florida's Doing 'Just Fine' On COVID-19

By Aliza Worthington — July 16, 2020

CNN's Brianna Keilar had her work cut out for her during an interview with Florida's Congressman Anthony Sabatini, in that her job is to tell the truth, and his job is apparently to lie his face off about how well his state is handling this pandemic. Fortunately, she had the facts at hand, but what she did not have was patience, and who could blame her?

She looked absolutely incredulous as Sabatini tried to tell her, with a soupçon of misogyny on the side, that she shouldn't "harp" on things like the number of cases of COVID-19 in the state of Florida. That that metric was not one that was relevant, and that — get this — Florida was doing JUST FINE on their handling of this little flu-bug thingie that is supposed to miraculously disappear.

Naturally, she couldn't let that stand, and after that, she couldn't let him finish a sentence without having to fact-check him, either.

SABATINI: Brianna, what you're doing is what a lot of folks in the media have done, which is harped exclusively on one metric, namely, the cases. Cases, cases, cases. The media is almost exclusively focused on this one number versus the two most important numbers, obviously, hospitalizations and fatalities, where, in most parts of the state, has flatlined or gone down, especially in mine. So, if we focus on the two more relevant metrics, Florida's doing just fine.

KEILAR: We focus on case positivity, and we just did a report on the metrics that you cited. Perhaps you didn't hear it.
[...]
Florida's not doing just fine.

SABATINI: No, they are, but on the judge issue, there's about 800 circuit court judges —

KEILAR: You think Florida is doing fine right now?

SABATINI: Absolutely. I think the governor's response that been on point and I think -- metrics that matter the most we're doing very well. If you're counting cases you're gonna scare people. But what they don't realize that cases are far less --

KEILAR: Deaths, 4,521. Total cases, 301,000.

SABATINI: Last week in Florida.

KEILAR: Hospitalizations increasing 19,334. 54 hospital ICUs have reached capacity in Florida. Another 40 hospitals show that ICUs at 10% or less availability, and you say you're doing fine?

SABATINI: We're the nation's third largest state. So, out of the seventy thousand new cases we had last week, we had about 100 more people go to the hospital. That is an extremely small number when you're looking at the fact we have 21.5 million people. Certainly not the sort of numbers that would drive people to shut down the economy.

KEILAR: Sir, you're the epicenter of a global pandemic and can't even admit that?

SABATINI: That's a false assessment entirely. I don't even know what you mean by epicenter. The whole world's dealing with this issue right now. There's gonna be a lot of cases in places of high population. Florida has 21.5 million people cases going up. Everybody knew they would go up. You open an economy cases go up. Does that mean higher risk? Absolutely not.

Okay, how does one state that opening up the economy means cases will go up, but it does not mean higher risk for people to catch COVID-19? HOW???

Well, kids, the fun didn't end after this ridiculous interview. It spilled over into Twitter, where Brianna Keilar has lost the ability to locate any of her f*cks, and boy does it show. Although, it doesn't show quite as much as Sabatini's stupidity, as he is the one who decided to start this fight with her post-interview.

Being able to comprehend the difference between opposing a government requirement of face masks—and the actual wearing of masks themselves—is an intelligence test that should be required before any person is allowed to sign up for a @Twitter account.

— Rep. Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) July 15, 2020

Really? HE'S calling HER stupid?

Your argument is uninformed crap, refuted by constitutional experts, the rant of someone who admits they don’t actually know a single person who has died from covid. It’s a luxury the family members of 138,000 Americans don’t enjoy.

— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) July 15, 2020

Welp. Now he needs to pull out the misogyny again. Can you spot it in the next tweet?

Your moronic emotional tirade never seems to cease @brikeilarcnn. I spent 100+ days on national guard duty in response to COVID—actually helping people.

You on the other hand, mindlessly and angrily parrot “guidelines” to get a rise—you are an embarrassment to journalism. https://t.co/AaIXNNytKw

— Rep. Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) July 15, 2020

WOMEN! They're so emotional! Is it her "time of the MONTH?" (—is what you KNOW he was muttering under his breath. And not in language that polite, either.)