By Justin Baragona and Maxwell Tani
The cable-news network that for weeks seemed to refuse to take coronavirus outbreak fears seriously has pivoted to heaping praise upon the president for taking it seriously.
Now that President Donald Trump has been forced to soberly address the coronavirus outbreak, after weeks of calling fears about the virus a Democratic “hoax,” some of his biggest boosters on Fox News have also moved from that dismissive talking point to a new one: Do not criticize the president while he leads us through this crisis.
After weeks of downplaying fears about COVID-19 or actively spreading misinformation about its origins and repercussions, Fox News hosts and guests over the past several days have lauded the president’s handling of the global pandemic, and bashed anyone who raises concerns about the Trump administration’s response.
Fox News primetime star Sean Hannity—a close confidant of the president’s who has been referred to as the unofficial White House chief of staff—dramatically changed his tune about the seriousness of the crisis at the top of his show on Monday night. Days after suggesting the so-called “deep state” was using the pandemic to hurt the American economy and push “mandated medicines,” Hannity called on all Americans to unite behind the president to overcome the crisis.
“This very moment is a critical time for everybody in the country,” Hannity proclaimed in his opening monologue. “If we all joined as Americans—the virus doesn’t discriminate against Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative—if we can do this for 15 days, thousands of American lives will be saved!”
Less than a week after downplaying the severity of the virus by citing the then-low U.S. death toll, Hannity went on to warn how dangerous coronavirus was to the population as a whole.
“For the 15-day period, the president is asking all Americans, even those that well, don’t like a single thing he’s done, let’s all join together in this effort,” the suddenly reconciliatory host exclaimed, days after accusing virus-related fears as being partisan-driven.
Earlier in the day, late-afternoon talk show The Five spent several segments lamenting how critics of the Trump response are merely “politicizing the pandemic.” Co-host Greg Gutfeld asserted, following the president’s latest press conference, “You cannot match the deeds that this administration is doing. They’re doing amazing work.” He also brushed aside any blame Trump should take for initially downplaying the crisis, insisting the president was merely acting as the “nation’s cheerleader” and trying to slow the market panic.
“Optimism is his blood,” Gutfeld declared of Trump. And then the gabfest swiveled to its favorite topic of choice: How the media is actually to blame for everything.
Earlier in the day, during an interview on Fox Business Network’s Varney & Co., frequent guest and historian Doug Wead (who recently published a hagiographic book about the Trump presidency) proclaimed that, “from the standpoint of history,” Trump’s pandemic leadership “is almost perfect. It looks like he was born for this moment.”