Dana Bash challenged Senator Rob Portman to do something substantive. She told him, as a Republican, he should tell the Right-Wing media to stop lying about vaccines.
Did Dana Bash scold Senator Rob Portman?
This may have gone past most of those who listened. But believe it or not, like microaggressions are cumulative, assigning blame and responsibility through interviews can make an entire minute of word salad and spinning garbage moot. That is what happened with Dana Bash and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH).
Bash showed Portman the famous clip where a panelist at CPAC was cheered when he pointed out that not as many people that the Biden Administration expected to get vaccinated would.
“They were hoping,” CPAC panelists Alex Berenson said to an irreponsibly cheering crowd. “The government was hoping that they could sort of sucker 90% of the population into getting vaccinated. And it isn’t happening. Right? There’s younger people …”
“They are doing that because of misinformation coming from the Right,” Dana Bash said. “Do your fellow Republicans need to stop questioning the vaccine and start pushing it instead?”
Portman started spinning immediately. He pointed out he was in a vaccine study and believed in it. He then tried to give Trump more credit than he is due for the development of the vaccine. RNA vaccine technology and other technologies were in progress way before COVID-19 and way before operation Warp Speed. COVID-19 presented the perfect actualized proof of concept. Portman’s narrative was still too vacillating on forcing the vaccine, apparently not acknowledging that a mandate for national security is likely warranted.
Bash eventually interrupted Portman’s spin.
“I think a public media campaign is a great idea,” Dana Bash said. “The problem is the Right-Wing media is putting out disinformation. So hopefully, you can talk them about maybe stopping some of that as well.”
The premise of her previous statement and this one is twofold. It makes it clear the disinformation is coming irresponsibly from the Right. Most importantly she made it clear that Republican politicians could do something about it.
