GOP Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana got a lot more than he bargained for when he tried to pooh-pooh to dismiss claims made this week by President Donald Trump regarding the use of disinfectant as a possible treatment for coronavirus.
Cassidy, who is also a medical doctor, was asked by CNN host John King:
“You’re a senator, but you’re also Dr. Cassidy. I’m interested in your perspective. If you look at Google searches this past week, after the doctor talked about sunlight and using disinfectants, you see a spike for searches for inject yourself with disinfectant. We’re in the position this past week where the Centers for Disease Control and U.S. Surgeon General had to put out public statements saying, and this is my translation, don’t listen to the president, be careful here.
“As a doctor, what goes through your mind when the president dispenses medical advice and have you ever thought about picking up the phone and saying, ‘Sir, please, don’t.”
The senator responded:
“The president speaks in such a way — people are not going to inject themselves, When I hear this conversation around that, I think to myself, we should be talking about how do we use data to guide where we can reopen the economy, and not about what the president said on Lysol. because, really, no one is going to inject themselves with Lysol.”
That’s when King fact-checked Cassidy, reminding him:
“I need to interrupt there, I hope you’re right. If you talk to the — on the Maryland hotline, they got a lot of phone calls. He [Trump] puts the nugget in people’s minds. If he hadn’t mentioned it, those searches don’t happen, those phone calls don’t happen, the time is not wasted and we can get to the point you’re trying to make.”
A clearly uncomfortable Cassidy replied:
“So, we can talk about Lysol, if you want to, John, we really can. What we should be talking about is how do we use data in order to keep people safe and reopen an economy.
“That’s not Lysol, but it is what opens our economy and that’s what I focus on.”
King managed to get the last word, telling the senator:
“We also have to cover the president of the United States when he says things.”
It’s clear that Trump knows he messed up with his speculation that UV light and disinfectant might be used inside the body to fight COVID-19. If you doubt that, consider that the president now says he won’t be doing the daily Coronavirus Task Force press briefings anymore. He’s seen the polls and knows his credibility is at an all-time low.
As for Senator/Dr. Cassidy, the more he tries to downplay Trump’s ignorance, he only succeeds in calling his own intelligence into question.
