President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have frequently downplayed the virus that's killed over 230 thousand Americans, railing against public safety measures taken to slow the spread and repeating outright falsehoods about it as well.
All the while, Trump and his sphere have repeatedly demonized the media for supposedly overblowing the viral pathogen's impact, despite it upending every aspect of daily life in the United States for the past eight months.
In the weeks before Election Day, Trump vowed that the media would declare the virus over if Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden defeated Trump. The implication was that journalists only covered the virus to make Trump look bad.
Sure enough—despite complaints from the Trump campaign—Biden has bested Trump in the Electoral College and is the nation's new President-elect.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), one of Trump's most loyal supporters, shared screenshots of CNN coverage before and after the election, thinking he'd caught the network red-handed.
Miraculous. COVID cured, the very instant the networks called the race for Biden. https://t.co/YcYeIolilZ
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 10, 2020
The pre-election screenshot shows the virus death toll and a background that GOP Rapid Response Director Steve Guest called "doom and gloom." Cruz joked that the change was "miraculous" and that the virus was "cured."
CNN Anchor Jake Tapper was quick to shut the Senator down, submitting for the record all the virus coverage CNN did on November 9—the same day mentioned in the screenshot.
We continue to cover this horrible crisis that our public officials are not doing enough to stop.
Yesterday: https://t.co/C44pa5pwDF https://t.co/dzlzjLETxW
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 10, 2020
Yesterday: https://t.co/1emMWtZesU
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 10, 2020
Yesterday: https://t.co/XDRO2BtQR8
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 10, 2020
Back on at 4 pm ET/ 1 pm Pacific and will cover the pandemic even more.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 10, 2020
Tapper wasn't the only one fed up with Cruz's falsehoods.
Perhaps an ill-fated coup attempt has pushed it to secondary story? Perhaps you missed it when they discussed how 44 states are headed in the wrong direction and 60,000 people are currently hospitalized? Perhaps you should stop defending a bully who blasted your wife and father?
— Slade (@Slade) November 10, 2020
If your goal is to have more deaths, more cases, and more ongoing permanent morbidity, then keep this up and congratulate yourself.
Now is the time to STOP politicizing science and let scientists, industry, and our institutions do their work WITHOUT your political interference.
— (((Howard Forman))) (@thehowie) November 10, 2020
Hey, @tedcruz unfortunately I live and vote in Texas where we have passed the threshold of 1 million cases so I hear about Covid regularly. Get your head out of Trump's backside and do some work on behalf of Texans, beginning with recognizing Pres elect Biden.
— SarahEFerguson (@SarahEFerguson3) November 10, 2020
If hell exists, you're a shoo-in.
— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) November 10, 2020
Tapper wasn't the only one to fact-check the claim either.
Literally RIGHT NOW! pic.twitter.com/TDfYBcCgKK
— Just Vent (@JustVent6) November 10, 2020
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
That purple background isn't there regularly and I'm watching right now and the covid tracker is there
Y'all reaching sooooooo hard. This guy probably sat there and waited for a segment to show the tracker gone to snap a pic
— 🇺🇸 PUMA 2.0 🔥 🇺🇸 (@PumaTwoPointO) November 10, 2020
The topic? Covid tracker was still on CNN during coverage of Biden's speech about his covid task force yesterday pic.twitter.com/L8TTXWGLKS
— John R Parkinson (@jparkABC) November 10, 2020
The tracker is still there I am looking at CNN at the moment. 10,110,992 cases,unacceptable by the way, and 238,251 deaths. The deaths are totally unacceptable and totally unnecessary.
— Barbara Melvin (@BarbaraMelvin3) November 10, 2020
President-elect Biden recently announced his virus response team. Meanwhile, multiple White House officials—including Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Housing & Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson—have tested positive for the virus in yet another outbreak in Trump's inner circle.
