Tucker Carlson Presses Coronavirus Task Force Member: ‘Put Some Meat on Those Bones’
Tucker Carlson is cracking down on a White House coronavirus task force member, Seema Verma, following her recent exchange with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum.
On Friday, Verma —who also serves as the head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services— appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
During the interview, Carlson pressed Verma for answers to the questions she seemed to avoid the previous night.
On Thursday, Martha MacCallum grilled Verma asking about the possibility of a shortage of ventilators in a possible worst-case scenario of the coronavirus. Verma never offered a definitive answer to the question.
Carlson admitted that he was so stunned by the deflection, he wanted to interview Verma, himself. He told Verma he’d watched the segment and offered his reaction to it.
“I watched that exchange last night, and I must be honest with you, I was really troubled by it,” Carlson admitted.
“Because you were asked a direct question by Martha MacCallum, ‘Do we have enough ventilators in ICU units,’ and you appeared to intentionally not answer it, so I’m going to ask you that question again and hope that we will be reassured by the answer. Do we have enough ventilators to treat a surge in cases coronavirus right now, do you believe?”
Verma offered a response to Carlson’s question. However, the answer offered no specifics.
“We have a stockpile of ventilators. So right now today we are able to address people that need ventilators,” Verma said, adding, “The president talked about ventilators today and said we’re going to purchase more to make sure that we have that backup supply. “
However, Carlson didn’t back down, as he continued to press Verma.
“Can you put some meat on those bones and give us a sense of how many ventilators are in place?” Carlson asked, adding, “How many are in the stockpile? How many do you think we will need?”
Verma insisted they were still assessing the situation working with hospitals and officials on local and state levels.
“In terms of numbers, we’re still assessing,” she said. “We’re still working with hospitals to understand what their needs are.”
Carlson went on to frame his concerns in a more specific question asking if there would be enough ventilators in the event of an uptick in positive coronavirus cases.
Verma expressed concerns about making “drastic predictions” due to the possibility of rapid changes. However, she insists President Donald Trump and his administration have worked to create “a lot more flexibility to the health care system.”
Check out the exchange below:
CMS head Seema Verma double-talk to Tucker Carlson is a TOTAL disaster. There is no compassion or concern in her voice. We are deep in #coronavirus
— Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) March 14, 2020
She will NOT answer his direct question about how many ventilators were being stockpiledpic.twitter.com/WQTUbQm1nU
The latest news follows Trump’s coronavirus briefing on Friday. At the time, he declared the coronavirus a national emergency, as reported on IJR.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a National Institutes of Health expert, also chimed in during Friday’s news conference, “We still have a long way to go. There will be many more cases. But we’ll take care of that.”
In the case of confuction, peenix, michael (with a capital B), syphilis and baal paul, it is utterly impossible to overcome stupidity, ignorance, arrogance, hate, violence and lies with facts. These comrades are steeped in these communist ideals that you will NEVER get them on the side of truth. They cannot even spell truth much less know it’s meaning.
Bob, and you will never overcome those qualities that you mention. It must so sad to be you.
A prime example of projection from Confused Bob The Projectionist, Paul.
The problem with your posts baal paul and confuction is that I do not have to overcome those qualities as I do not have them. My life is based on facts and common sense which is something you two and others like you do not have. You do not have intelligence, integrity or truth on your side and never will. You and the party you uphold only selects people who cannot think for themselves and will succumb to the propaganda, rantings and teachings of the communist form of government. You are nothing more than a useful idiot and a drone to them. You are some of their prize students as you have no brain.
61% of Democrats are following advice and are social distancing, etc.
30% of American Fascists are looking out for themselves and families.
Who is succumbing to propaganda and rantings? When this is all over look at the statistics, to see who was most affected.
contusion- 61% of dimocrats live under rocks. ALREADY socially distanced
That should have been…
30% of American Fascists are NOT looking out for themselves and families.
>Confused Socialist Coward<
I AM the Projectionist working from my nursing home in an MGM movie house 24/7. DO NOT take my title away. I earned it and am proud to be a charter member of the anti-Communists/Fascist scumbag population in the US; and not a moronic, indoctrinated, lockstep Socialist puppet.
You are confused, Confused James The Projectionist.
You have been indoctrinated in other bad things.
And another hater appears. Looks like the patients are trying to run the asylum. Isn’t there another site you can invade. The liberals have so many. And if any of these now 4 know it alls think they are even capable of changing minds to their obvious hate for anyone who doesn’t think as they do,
……just ain’t gonna happen. None of you are that convincing.
Need a safe place Cherl?
Funny how that works, huh?
Same old childishness.
Cherl, there will never be a legal safe place for you.
Ah! ANOTHER witty(so they think)one. Been gone for awhile. Is paulie contusion’s brother?
I talk with people who disagree with me to see if they can change my mind. And Screwtape has been able to on several occasions. You are just never willing to argue your opinion and instead default to insults.
Why would someone go to a site strictly for an echo chamber?
Funny. You assumed I was referring to you.
My question is the same. Why would you want an echo chamber?
You mean like Huffington Post, abc.com, Politico, NYTimes.com, Dailykos.com which are only a few of the top 20. That echo chamber?
The question is still relevant, regardless of who you were referring to.
No, i mean like you wanting people to only go to sites that match their political viewpoint. I get why a conservative might, just because there is so much left leaning news everywhere, but I don’t get why you would ask anyone who leans left to not be on this site.
So what gives?
Don’t put words in my mouth. I mostly bypass the posts here. So post away.
Why? The condescension might be a reason. I’ve given the many liberal sites a look and all I got was anger and more condemning as a Kool-Aid drinking Trump supporter. When we all know that was a drink served during the last presidency.
“just because there is so much left leaning news everywhere” Phoenix
BS
There are way more influential conservative sites, including most of the MSM, than there will ever be from the left or real independent sources because there are so many wealthy conservatives pumping duffle bags of money into them.
I would really welcome some like Steyer or Bloomberg doing the same just to get a semblance of balance back in the media.
I know Cult-45, even you, will disagree with this, but it is true. Turning Point USA, Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, and many, many other sources of disinformation have no equal on the left. They spread their nonsense with impunity because they don’t need to worry about finances. Even IJR has a sugar-daddy or two.
You really are confused about this, Phoenix.
“There are way more influential conservative sites, including most of the MSM, than there will ever be from the left or real independent sources”. Once again contusion shows he lives in”the dimension of imagination”.
Cherl; The Confused Socialist Coward used to frequent Media Matters for anti-Americans until they advised his/her/its handlers they were in fact anti-America; but, required a minute measure of cognitive acuity for membership and a reservation in a padded room. Like the failure he/she/it is as a Socialist puppet, he/she/it failed the test.
A more important question than ventilators is do they have enough facilities IF the epidemic literally goes “viral”?
WHO rated Italy as the 2nd-best for medical care, yet their facilities completely failed under the onslaught of Wuhan virus.
What has this bureaucrat learned from that and what is she or her agency doing to prevent that?
Rumor being floated is the Government will use the military to build more hospitals. Maybe they’ll follow the 1950/Korean Conflict theme and put up some M.A.S.H. tents to work on this Wuhan flu. D’RATS are clueless.
The US has a history of being ill-prepared, scrambling, then eventually mobilizing the power of private industry. q.v. the US had LESS troops in the military than Portugal when WWII broke.
After Dec.7 WE mobilized over 2,000,000 troops, produced planes by the hour, and turned Detroit automakers into armaments factories.
We can do so again in facing the Wuhan virus IF the doom sayers and Negative Nellies will back off and work towards solutions.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Nowadays the new motto is “Badmouth people who are actually doing something.” Backseat whiners.
Don’t know how that question can be answered any better.
They have a stockpile of ventilators, i.e., more than they need right now. Will that be enough? Depends on how many new cases show up. So, how many new cases will show up? It’s anybody’s guess.
Suppose they have 40 million ventilators available right now. If all 360 million of us in the U.S. get the disease, that probably won’t be enough. But if the infection rate is 1% and 3.6 million people get the disease, 40 million ventilators would be huge overkill. And if containment, decontamination, and hand washing work together to limit the spread of the disease, that would reduce the infection rate even more.
So, no one knows how many ventilators will be needed. But they have more than enough for the immediate need. And they’ve ordered more.
Don’t know how the question can be answered any better.
Personally, I believe they’re going to wind up with a mountain of ventilators that won’t get used.
excellently stated… I don’t know how anyone would struggle understanding that….. Unless you’re so full of hate you absolutely cannot think straight…. Which seems to be the general state of confusion that almost everyone on the left seems to be drowning in.
It only stands to reason, with the number of pundits out there that some are going to be fear mongers. Tucker has had guests on his show that would seemingly have all of us building hazmat bunkers. I trust that Tucker is honestly reflecting the worry and anxiety that he’s experiencing and not just doing it for the sensational aspect of it and that’s okay. It’s not what I would do but Tucker gets a pass from me because he’s not spreading false propaganda like the Left.
At what point is it the fault of the official who is being interviewed for being unable to coherently respond to a valid question that has been asked of them multiple days in a row?
You are making an excuse for Carlson because he has been brainwashed by his guests!?!?
Tucker appears to have come a long way from China developing the virus to shutdown the Hong Kong protesters and Democrats wanting to “impeach” Trump over the coronavirus.
If only James and his crowd would have a similar realization.
Michael, don’t hold your breath on that. Health to you and your loved ones.
Don’t let Tucker confuse you.
It is still all an act. He is still the white nationalist and racist that he always was and will be.
GC, Of course you are right, but you must admit he put on that confused, innocent face while questioning that butt-kissing moron. Ain’t it summthin’ that more and more of Fox “News” people are turning their noses at our esteemed leader?
Some FOX fans have woken up, too. Did you see the audience participation from the Bernie Sanders town hall? Very telling. They cheered on all of his platform.
And you sir are right in line with him!
So was the FOX audience! That’s my point.
General confusion you have to be the dumbest SOB that I have ever met online, consistently dumber than a rock… How do you do that??
Says a person who seems to believe this virus was a plot by China to bring down the US.
“Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you”
Steelers Wheel
You mean Stealers Wheel? GEEZ
genital contusion- STILL claiming to have NEVER called anyone a name here like you have hundreds of times? Your lack of self-awareness is comical. Continue with what you do best, call people names since you actually have a coherent thought as often as biden does. YOU are the “act”.
I employ nicknames for members who rightly earn them. I don’t deny it and will continue the practice.
Liar. You’ve always denied. That’s why your credibility equals ZERO.
Ban, WHY would you consider General’s credibility an issue because you are confused and perceived he claimed he does not use nicknames? And more importantly, WHY would the General CARE if he has no credibility with a guy that uses Trump as a source of his beliefs? BTW, It was me who you previously accused of employing nicknames and I am the one who denied it and asked you to provide evidence to the contrary. Still waiting for the evidence. I do shorten posters’ names, i.e., Ban, Screw, General, but I do not consider those nicknames or intend disrespect. Just because we have a POTUS with the emotional maturity of a 3rd grader, I have no desire to imitate his behavior.
Thank you, Phyllis. I was unaware of that?
I see contusion needs philly to fight his fights for him. philly, please show your evidence anywhere here to back up your statement that I use Trump as a “source” of my beliefs. You don’t know anything at all about my beliefs about anything, except that I support President Trump. You’re too busy thinking you’re God’s gift to Armchair Psychiatry to notice anything real about anybody. As far as your name calling goes, it’s so nice of you to have changed your ways on the new site, but BOTH of us know the name calling you did on the old site. Get real, softy.
Been gone for awhile and softy is STILL talkin her trash. She STILL wants EVERYONE here to believe she is married to a Trump supporter and I see she still only pipes in when she has her whole “crew” around.
Ban, dear, you have been reading my postings for long enough to have sufficiently discerned that I don’t give a hoot what one elects to believe or calls me. Many of IJR posters, i.e., Millie, James, Screw,…, have bought into the Trump, Limbaugh, FOX News propaganda that the pandemic was a false narrative promoted by the MSM–Yesterday, Trump publicly claimed he knew all along it was a pandemic. They can get away with gaslighting people on who is paying for the wall, the ineffectual response of the wall, the tax cuts paying for themselves, et al,… BUT when you jeopardize the health and welfare of those individuals and those with whom they have contact, THAT should be illegal.
Since you have stated on more than one occasion here that your main source for information is the Cannabis News Network, any comment you make about propaganda is laughable. By including the wall into your comment, I can see that you are still beating that same dead horse. I’m sure you will have something about the wall engraved on your tombstone.
To be quite frank, I can not say what my MAIN source of info is because I listen and read MANY sources–and many do start with “C”—C-Span1 and C-Span2 , CNBC, CBS, and CNN. Cannabis News Network would not be one.
WHY exactly would I NOT include CNN as a news source? CNN is NOT the network that told its viewers that the reaction to COVID-19 was a “Democrat hoax.” Parents that are CNN viewers are not the ones who sent their children to FL beaches for spring break. CNN is NOT the network that multiple anchors claimed Obama’s economic #’s were “phony.” Not the network that sold the idea of “Death Panels,” “No Collusion No Obstruction” in the Mueller Report, the Uranium One deal was not investigated, or ONE MORE Benghazi investigation would prove all the conspiracies DISPROVED in the first 7 investigations. NOT the network that claimed Seth Rich turned DNC emails over to Wikileaks—or repeatedly aired Solomon and R politicians selling the Russian conspiracy that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election.
I will have no tombstone since my funeral arrangements include being cremated. BUT….LOL…I see it still bothers you that I won’t forget Mexico isn’t paying for the wall….But there are so many more Trump fantasies that did not come true that I won’t forget. WHY does that ONE cause you so much distress?