Fox guest calls out anchor for asking if states are shutting down just to hurt Trump: “It's embarrassing that we are even talking about it"
Published
Citation From the May 14, 2020, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered Overtime with Harris Faulkner
HARRIS FAULKNER [ANCHOR]: Jon, is it political to you? I mean, the president says critics want to keep the economy closed until the election. It's a political thing.
JON SUMMERS [FORMER AIDE TO SEN. HARRY REID]: I don't know, Harris. What do you think? Do you think it's real? Do you think there's a big Democratic deep state that's going in trying to shut down the entire economy and make everybody suffer just to win an election? Do you think there is actual truth to that?
FAULKNER: I'm just asking the questions as the journalist and host of the show. I want to know what you think.
SUMMERS: I get it. And as a journalist, you haven't seen any data to show that such a thing exists. So we've got to use a little bit of data, add that to a little bit of common sense, and we are going to be much safer country, and that's what we've seen happening in the states. The majority of the states have already started to reopen. My state where I live, in Maryland, starts reopening tomorrow. Our Republican governor has been one of the strictest in the country, and he is beginning that phased reopening.
FAULKNER: Couldn't be any stricter than California. They could be closed until August.
SUMMERS: Well, you know, California is going to figure out what California is going to do, but you can be critical of what California is doing. But Harris, that does not point to any sort of effort to hurt -- to win an election by hurting the American people. It's preposterous. And frankly, I think it's embarrassing that we are even talking about it on this network right now. Because all this is doing is helping to perpetuate something that we all, in this conversation, know isn't true.