President-elect Joe Biden warned yesterday that America could fall behind by months in distributing a vaccine if the Trump administration continues to withhold information.
"A source tells CNN that current HHS staffers have been instructed not to communicate with the Biden team. Joining us now, CNN political commentator Errol Louis and Natasha Alford, vice president of digital content and senior correspondent for The Grio," Alysin Camerota said.
"Errol, it's -- I don't even know what word to use, funny, sad? I know that it is life and death. It is life and death, now, that the Biden team is being blocked. The idea that we could be behind by months in this country in terms of the distribution of a vaccine. The one thing that everyone is holding on to, the light at the end of the tunnel, and it could be -- even if it were delayed by days, it would be life and death for some people. And that's where we are."
"That's where we are," Louis said. "It is important that I think people remember that while the vaccine is an attractive possibility, right now, the emphasis has to be on the safeguards that are necessary to save lives right now. And it's doubly shocking that we don't see the commander in chief. He called himself a wartime president in this war against the president, taking no action to help galvanize the country.
"You know, if you remember back to March and April, Alisyn, the president would talk in public meetings with the governors of the most severely affected states. He would deploy the Navy. He deployed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They would set up mobile field hospitals where it was needed. All of that emergency activity is needed and more right now, as well as putting in place some kind of a plan to bring this to a conclusion with a vaccine some months down the road."
"The fact that none of these things are happening is shocking and it's a dereliction of duty, at the worst possible time. And it's a mistake to think that, hey, it's only 60 days until this is all over, on January 20th and a new administration is sworn in. Well, those 60 days are the difference between the start of this pandemic and absolute catastrophe back in March and April. And we're set to relive it all over again."
"He's not a wartime president, he's a tee-time president. As in golf tee," John Berman said.
"He's spent more time golfing than speaking to the public. Twelve out of the last 16 days, he's had nothing on his public schedule. Nothing. I mean, I covered the White House for a year. I've never seen anything like this. People who have covered it for far longer than I have have never seen a stretch like this. He's doing aggressively nothing. Like, the aggressive absence of power and authority here.
"And as Alisyn says, I mean, he's trying to overthrow the Constitution to keep his job. You would think he would at least want to do it."
