During a Q&A with press Monday, Vice President Mike Pence lied about the cases in Oklahoma, saying that they were flattening the curve. In fact, Oklahoma is seeing an increase in coronavirus cases along with many other states that opened up during the Memorial Day weekend.
Co-host Sunny Hostin blasted the White House for lying to people about the facts when Vice President Mike Pence, in particular, chairs the Coronavirus Task Force.
"This spreading of misinformation leads to the loss of life," she explained. "The vice president is supposed to be the head of the Coronavirus Task Force. Not only is he giving misinformation and saying that Oklahoma has somehow flattened the curve, but he also apparently encouraged governors to share with their citizens that the increase, the spikes we're seeing is because we're seeing an increase in testing. That's not true."
She said that many states were encouraged to open early and since then there have been a significant spike in COVID-19 cases as well as deaths.
"When you look at the numbers in Oklahoma, 225 new cases of COVID-19 this Saturday which is its highest one-day total since the pandemic began," Hostin said about the state. "How dare the vice president tell the people of the United States and the people of Oklahoma that there's been a curve. You're inviting 60,000 people to a rally where masks are optional al optional. Where they might be infected with a life-ending virus. I just think he's a menace to citizens."
"It's crazy, yeah," Whoopi Goldberg agreed.
"It's despicable," Hostin said.
But Meghan McCain disagreed, saying that it's hypocritical for Democrats to be fine with Black Lives Matter protests but not Trump rallies.
"Do you think [Andrew] Cuomo cared about people's health when he moved people around to nursing homes and a lot of people died?" McCain said, referring to the decision to allow COVID-19 patients to return to their nursing homes. "There's a lot of hypocrisy to go around."
She claimed that she's removing politics from the situation and saying that everyone should hold back on going out in public whether states are reopening or not.
"We're seeing a lot of anger festering," McCain continued. "When you're seeing people taking it into their own hands and opening up playgrounds in Brooklyn because Bill de Blasio won't let them, but hundreds of thousands of people can protest in Brooklyn. We can laugh all we want, but this is the most angry I've seen a lot of people I know because the message is confusing. Is COVID a pandemic or is it not or is it only a pandemic if you are a conservative and you're a Trump supporter and then you have to stay inside and you're a hypocrite if you go to his rally, but you're not a hypocrite if you protest somewhere else?"
Behar shouted out to use "common sense," but Goldberg cut in saying, no one should be outside protesting or doing a rally, but everyone has the right to make their own decision.
"The whataboutism is irrelevant to me right now," said Behar. "No one in the Cuomo administration has asked anyone to sign a waiver so that they can't be sued."
McCain cut in.
"I'm no Trump fan, everybody knows that, but you make me defend him when you say he wants people to die," she said. "When there's a huge controversy in New York City with nursing homes that affected one of my best friends in the world very personally. Let's be careful with our rhetoric. It's a heightened time and dangerous. I've been in quarantine -- or sheltering in place for the past three and a half months. I still can't buy a crib for my child in person. It's confusing. It's frustrating. I want people to be responsible and safe. I don't understand the mixed messages and there's a lot of Americans on the same page."
"Listen, he fired the pandemic team!" Behar said.
"I don't know what that means," McCain replied.
"It means that the whole thing started with the government, otherwise if he hadn't been so incompetent we would all probably be out of this," Behar said.
"This is an American problem. This is a problem that is bipartisan. This is not just a Trump administration problem," McCain shot back.
"I disagree," Behar said.
"I'm sorry but this is ridiculous!" McCain said.
After the break, the group returned to the argument with Behar saying that the difference between the protests and a rally is that protesters are largely wearing masks and they're in the open air, where Trump's rally will be in a closed space and masks are optional.
"I think it would help your cause once in a while -- I think we've been seeing hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets for the past two weeks," said McCain. "Again, you can have a political conversation about what is worthy about going outdoors. The average Trump supporter will not see a difference. I wouldn't go to either because I think it's unsafe because of the COVID virus. That's my take. There's a lot of hypocrisy going around."
Hostin said that there is a difference to her because people are protesting the murder of an unarmed black man and exercising a constitutional right for change. Trump is holding a political campaign rally, asking people to sign a waiver to absolve themselves from the liability and lying about the dangers.
See the intense debate below:
Part 1:
Part 2:
