tv Politicking RT March 31, 2020 2:30pm-3:01pm EDT
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coven 19 continues to spread and the u.s. death toll mounts as the government prepares to dole out 2 trillion dollars in relief we'll get perspective from 2 former congressman and the currently quarantined mayor of miami it's all on this edition of politics. welcome to politicking on larry king donald term gives his administration high marks for its response to the cole the 19 pandemic but is that a unanimous rating for his assessment on this we're joined by bob barr former republican congressman from georgia he also served as former u.s. attorney he joins us from atlanta bob president trump says that he has done a hell of a job in dealing with the cold and 19 situation what do you think i
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think that the president has done some taken some very good steps for example a lot over the weekend here shoot an order through the partner phone plants security that firearms are an essential business there by preventing hopefully preventing governors and other quote anti firearms officials from closing gun stores that it was a very very important step making the at the 2 u.s. naval hospital ships available to california and new york i make this very important loosening regulations that prevent private industry from assisting the department of health and human services in getting products on the market and having some of the reps try to get new products on the market i think are very important steps so i think the president has taken some very important
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steps. was he a little slow to react to all of this. i think the administration was kind of slow getting out of the starting gate. you know i don't fault them too much for that because was very difficult really on to really gauge exactly what the problem was that we were dealing with and are dealing with. i think a lot of the fault lies with the centers for disease control this is an agency that is set up specifically supposedly to deal with problems like the coronavirus yet they have been home but they did not get the proper information out consistently early on they could not make test kits available that work really on so i mean if heads should roll here the head of the c.d.c.
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should take a lot of the very legitimate blame for the administration slow start what do you make of the complaint by trump about certain governors not appreciative enough about what he's doing do you think he's in wall with some governors to be honest with you i don't think it helps anybody for the president to get and. arguments with with governors the president in my view should be above that if governors stand in the way helping their citizens then i think that's appropriate for at the administration's carona task force to point that out but for the president to get in the sandbox with some of these governors i don't think helps either the citizens of those states or of the country generally
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he's extend he's extended social distancing through april 30th do you like better. i'm not sure it's really the job of the federal government to tell me how far apart from somebody i can stand. so the role of the federal government should be to provide resources that assist the states since this is a national problem not just one that is limited to the states the federal government should make the resources through for example the national guard to engage in civilian aspects of getting supplies out but. you know it's not the job of the president i don't think washington to tell me how far apart actually stam from somebody that should be up to the states not the federal government how long do you think this is going to last
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it certainly appears to me from talking with doctors here in my home state of georgia and talking with the state officials here i think they're they're looking to continue a lot of these restrictions at the state level and to be working on this pandemic as a real crisis probably for the next 2 to 3 months before it really. you know as they say sort of flattens out but i don't think that we've seen the end of. what's been the economic effect of all of this bob. i think the economic effect has been devastating just here in in georgia. there's virtually no traffic on the road small business of sporadically those relating to hospitality sports entertainment food. and pretty much almost
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completely shut down and that has a very significant ripple effect on the economy virtually across the country so i think the the effect on the economy has been very very very serious and it's going to take us i think a long time to recover despite the fact that secretary that is for a minute and thanks that we may be back where we were before the pandemic very quickly not i think that's overly optimistic i know you have been a long critic a long time critic of the deep state some suggest the tump is now leaning into the dream state mobilizing federal power and depending on the government career is in the face of coven 1000 is trump in the dream state. i don't i would say that trump isn't the deep state but the president and those to
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face top officials in his administration for example a part of justice and on land security certainly like any administration before them they look at these emergencies as a way to extend federal power and for example some of the technology that government is using in conjunction with private industry the social media and social engines internet companies and so forth is very disturbing and i think will continue that sort of electronic monitoring probably will continue and even after the pandemic these measures larry that are instituted during crises never seem to disappear completely have you been tested bob now that no reason to be and i don't want to go and protest that could be better
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used for somebody that has either symptoms or has traveled in areas where the the device has been prevalent when you want to know just out of curiosity no i'm really not interested i think that. we need to use those test kits where they're needed most and the fact that have to as i mentioned earlier larry that the c.d.c. was very slow in approving test kits and getting them out and getting in place a procedure to really make them useful means that we still don't have the signs or stamp that the number of test kits all over the country you need the most bob barr thanks so much always good talking to you. descend to there you take care sir. by now you are aware of the 2 trillion dollar leaf package sent to be
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distributed to struggling americans and u.s. businesses does it cover enough to impact the coven $1000.00 pandemic or is more needed we'll talk about that with the former g.o.p. congressman bill mccollum of florida he was also their attorney general and he joins us from orlando if you were still in the house bill would you have voted for this stimulus plan i probably would have had to or felt compelled to but i'm going to tell you there are a lot of things that that i don't think we're going to need in the future and we are going to really put in the country a hope but the most important moment is to get through that moment coronavirus the qubit 19 get people settle back and get the economy going again that's what's the most important thing. what what bothers you about something that's been
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included. well the nothing in the specifics of it is the sheer quantity of it we're talking a lot of money at a problem which unfortunately a lot of the issues aren't money the issues of money of course are people individuals and businesses to get started again on the health care side of it it's my understanding that we have a real shortage of raw materials to the face mask with for you know mass for the hospitals and and so on and for you and i in protective gear and we don't have the raw materials with which to make these live there over in southeast 'd asia and asia so i am not sure in my whole mind how much of this money is going to be required and much of it may not be on the side there for helping people out i'm all for helping people help i think we have to do it right now but the point is this i would have voted for him it's about how much were thrown out there that couple of
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trillion dollars which is half of our budget about at least and we're going to do more undoubtedly and yet i guess i'm not sure how much of it is a dollar instant problem at the moment. democrats will compete in lee said they position themselves as prioritizing the american worker above corporations do you think the american worker has been taken care of in this bill. i think the key to the american worker is the corporation small corporation particularly small businesses but some of the largest all of them getting back and being able to employ people again in the short run the america workers being taken care of about as well as we can here we're trying to provide unemployment insurance back up for additional days we're trying to provide individuals with some cash to spend that's going to be not as quickly getting out there as i think most people would like but that's what's been tried in the still.
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the only way we're going to take care of the american worker those to sorrow and conquer this war against the coronavirus and get the business community back again reemployed people most people want shops they want to work and we have a few people in special areas like work at a grocery stores working in a few of the facilities that are open of course health care but we by and large are shutting down and shut down in most of the country are basically and until that should get going again we're going to. risk taking care of the back to work or we're just getting along we're just getting by. and nobody knows for sure how long this is going to last but it is a very serious moment for us bill stay right there we'll have more politicking right after the break.
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better of flaunting russian and why it's. your government and our government and all the other major governments of the world know what's going to them and when it's going to. but they haven't told you and they haven't told me they haven't announced. imagine something as big as the earth . is going to cause tidal waves or earthquakes volcanoes erupt and it's going to chill. so very for a while right. my great grandfather's. nobody would care about the law or prison so you'd have wallace those should have. a terrible
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life between the and the. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy when foundation let it be an arms race is on off and spearing dramatic to follow can only closely i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical thought. time to sit down in tom. was about to politicking we're talking with bill mccollum former g.o.p. congressman from florida he's in orlando you think 2 trillion is going to be enough
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bill. i have no idea how much money is required i think 2 trillion maybe more than enough on the other hand we're going to find out i'm sure the next few days holes that we have that we need to fill right now that testing look like it's coming along we've got several new ideas and new products that are out there so i'm hopeful we'll be able to get our arms quickly around the issue of just how many people are infected and how it's being spread in a lot more detail than we've known up till now we need very badly to and one of these come through that are being tested that already exist but we don't know how effective they are from a scientific standpoint in controlling some patient who has a the corona virus and alternately course we need a vaccine and then at some point the judge has got to be made to let most of the economy go back to work again because if we shut this economy down as hard as it is
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now for a very long period of time you know meaning 345 spat it will be devastating it will be a recession plus perhaps a depression and it's very hard to get that economy going again when that happens so i'm apprehensive about that part of it i really believe the president isn't set upon moving out as quickly as he can but he's got to follow the advice as anybody would of the top officials 'd and trying to save as many lives as possible and get ventilators where they can be established to get more of them to make sure the hospital beds and to get as much as we can to protect our hospital health care workers and our aged people but other than that we've got to get back to. the cruise business is not included in this act it's a $9000000000.00 business and thanks florida what do you think was that
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a mistake. well i think the cruise industry should have been covered i really understand the argument i heard it mentioned to be on the show a week or so ago by host and the idea is that you know the cruise industry has ported even though they may have a company a corporate id in the united states largely they are operating out of a foreign country some want to avoid paying taxes but they are american businesses i can play in fort lauderdale miami with does the appear at the cape the cruise industry is a vital component to the economy not only of florida the lot of other states they step in mainly operating out of here so there are taxes being paid sales taxes there are a lot of people who are being employed or in the in the business of selling the cruise market it's just the chute business so yes i think it was a mistake not to include them i think is a bit then of people who are trying to use the system
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a commitment to game and to make some change of policy or to influence these corporations to to bring their corporate headquarters to technically back here to pay taxes here and i understand that at the time to when they came in and your resume shamil house goven and descendants doing i think every sense is doing very well going into this particular crisis he had been at the top of the church as far as performance is concerned by everybody who is measuring him now we have critics people who say he should have corn team the whole state made sure that we all stayed in place and state of home what he's trying to do is say look there really areas of our state aren't yet effectively so i can't tell but they are why should everybody be locked down as they are doing in some parts of the country right now but he just does not want issue edict for the entire state to lock it down and miti other things he's done but not that shut ins to
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a whole order for every one bill mccollum always good talking with me and thanks so much. it's very easy to pleasure we're joined now my miami mayor francis suarez he joins us from his city where he squadron teen after testing positive for the virus he continues his mayoral duties which includes issuing a stay at home curfew from 10 pm to 5 am for all miami residence he joins us from miami now you went into quarantine earlier this month but you had direct contact with someone who had lated tested positive you have subsequently got tested how are you doing. i'm only one in day 18 of my quarantine i got tested because someone in a delegation of person with the brazilian president came to my and tested positive
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and so i went into immediate quarantine 18 days ago the department of health from the state asked me to come in and get tested i got tested and to my surprise the next day was told i was positive so i knew that was going to set off a chain reaction of things i had to go public with obviously my family had to get tested about 40 members of my administration to get tests it wasn't until age in in our government which is about 6 or 700000 people so it was it was very difficult i was the 2nd positive person in all of my many county which is a metropolitan area of 3000000 people and so it's been a journey that's for sure how are you feeling. i feel great i've been very lucky larry i was lucky to be relatively asymptomatic i never got a fever i never got a sore throat all i had was congestion in my worst moment at the think tunnel for
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x. a couple of times i didn't have too many. of those lines that didn't have you know some of these very severe cases obviously that also means that as someone with relatively little symptoms i could have given it to several 100 people had i not taken the precautions to quarantine early and and take all these preventive measures that are doctor to recommend mr mayor you issued a curfew from 10 pm to 5 am for your citizens have they been obeying it. you know we've been extremely practive interactive as me or even the face of criticism i was the 1st mayor cancel major events like all truck and festival in the case of ultra 150000 people coming from 105 different countries would be happening in the last few days in cairo which was 250000 people we were the set the 2nd city to issue a stay at home order and the 1st one to issue
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a curfew and the reason why we're doing that is because all the medical experts agree that that is the fastest way for us to flatten the curve the fastest way for us to be able to return to normalcy obviously it's uncomfortable and it's something that is only used under very limited circumstances but it's something that we felt was necessary to protect our residents and get us back to normal life as quickly as possible emotionally for you was it tough to do. you know the toughest part for me was being away from my 2 children have a 6 year old and have a 2 year old daughter 6 year old son and. neighbor to hug them not being able to hold them has been very very weird for me and obviously i'm a people person and i love to interact with people to hug people want so it's different being away from any essentially any human contact for 18 days has been
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very strange but i'm looking forward to hopefully my sex result today i got tested negative yesterday and i'm hoping to be able to get out of corteen under the strictest protocol that the c.d.c. requires there's been a lot of criticism of your governor rhonda centers the president has praised him what's your assessment as to how the job he's doing i've been in constant communication with him he has supported me in my measures to basically got down our city he has. put in checkpoints the border he's also asked or he's requiring sorry new yorkers that are coming from new york to miami to quarantine for 14 days he's made that a requirement and managed and he said conversations with the president about limiting travel from a variety of hot spots to the city of miami so from my perspective he's been working well with us obviously i know that there are people that would like him to
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implement a state wide a stay at home or he just implemented a stay at home order for south florida and i'm thankful that he did that because that follows what we're doing here and certainly in urban areas where there's a higher concentration of people in meant to require people to stay home and to require them not to be out past certain time could things get worse. of course of course they can which is why we are implementing these strict measures counting and the city of miami or the epicenter of corona virus in florida we have the most cases by about 2030 percent over broward so you know certainly they could get worse i don't think we're on what they call apex or the peak yet we're projecting that out 7 to 10 days from now and we're hopeful that after that point things will gradually get better our hospital
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systems are at least for the moment prepared on the personal protective equipment side on the bed side and on the ventilator site our community hospitals have 2000 ventilators which is more than half the country of italy where the 4th largest public hospital in america but as with you know we seen in new york this can get out of control very very quickly song glad that you know we've been very proactive to implement the most aggressive measures to make sure that we come out of this as quickly as possible we have a far far lower mortality rate than the average the national mortality rate last time i checked was a little bit over 1.3 percent were at point 03 and so our hospital system right now isn't a fantastic job treating people that have government in there i wish you well i hope you get better and good luck to that great city thank you
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larry likewise and hope to see you soon in miami. thank you for joining me on this edition of politicking or member you can join the conversation on my facebook page or twit made king's tweet me at kings things and don't forget use the politicking hash tag that's all for this edition of politicking. tariff long russian airline says. i'm a journalist it's all i know being a truth teller people say i make among come from good uses like a jackhammer good drill down until you find the true news with rick sanchez because
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it's time to do news again and question more. tariff long russian airlines. i can't show you my face but i'm going to tell you must story in 993 this man was sentenced to death. they could charged with capital murder even though he didn't have the gun didn't pull the trigger didn't intend to kill anybody imagine living
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in your bathroom for the week. he said of the 23. i doubt that had to be. confined within the green. using. believed in this room. micrographs friends aren't slights against you know whites or men for example there's their slights against women or nonwhites so it's always the idea is that statements that directed toward a privileged group are interpreted differently than a statement directed toward an oppressed group and so that's kind of the whole framework and it's it's a political framework that's used the result is of course focusing at least on certain kinds of minor slights and saying well rather than ignore them or them we need to call attention to them but it's not all slice so it's very political in
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this country. live from the world headquarters of the r t america in our nation's capital this is the news with rick sanchez hello again everybody i'm rick sanchez among the stories that we're going to be able to cover for you on this day greed greed has a lot to do with why many countries including the united states are simply not prepared for the coronavirus and we're going to drill down on those for you even if it means that we have to ruffle some feathers it is tuesday 3 pm here in washington d.c. and we welcome those of you watching us from johannesburg to jakarta and all over the world whether you're tuning in by satellite or on portable t.v. and the.
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