On Friday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) elaborated on remarks he had made on Glenn Beck’s radio show a day earlier slamming Center for Disease Control head Dr. Thomas Frieden. But in his criticism, he also took a shot at one of Frieden’s defenders, Fox News Channel’s Geraldo Rivera.
“First of all, you had the CDC that couldn’t even explain what protocol got violated,” Gohmert said. “But instead of asking forgiveness and explaining they had not gotten protocols where they needed to be, they come out and say, ‘Well, this nurse got Ebola because she violated protocol.’ At least in football the referee has to tell you what rule you violated. They couldn’t do that because they had never gotten the rules to them. They had never gotten the protocols out. And so they immediately blame the nurse. You would have thought that would be enough. But oh, no, when the second nurse gets Ebola, they immediately say she shouldn’t have been out there flying — failing to tell us that actually we’re the ones that told her that she could fly. I mean, it is a war on these poor women nurses and they are doing the best they can and the CDC.”
“I don’t want Frieden to resign, I agree with Geraldo — Geraldo was talking about that and I have to bow to him in certain areas where he has more expertise like selfie nudies,” Gohmert continued. “He’s got more expertise there. But with regard to the CDC, Frieden ought to stay on. But instead of continuing to complain about female nurses, he ought to go to one of those hospitals and put on gloves and masks, like our military is going to get. They’re not going to get full suits in these Ebola-infected nations. They’re going to be out there, most of them unarmed.”
Host Brian Kilmeade stuck up for Rivera, saying, “Don’t taking shots at Geraldo. He’s a great friend of ours. Yes, he has great experience. Just don’t. Let’s just stick to the topics.”
Gohmert shrugged off Kilmeade’s rebuttal and went on to suggest there’s perhaps a backroom deal between the Ebola-infected nations and the Obama administration.
“Well, it could be. It could be. But I also think when you look at what the CDC and the president have been doing and saying, there is apparently some deal back there that’s been made with these Ebola-infected nations and I think we’re going to find out about it when the president has a lot more flexibility after the election. I just think there is some deal here. That’s why they won’t do a travel ban. Every caring mother in America knows and has said at one time or another to their child, ‘No, you’re not going because you’re sick’ or, ‘You’re not going to give it to them or this child’s sick. They’re not coming over here. Mothers understand that. Nurses understand that. It’s a shame the CDC and the president don’t understand that. I think there’s some deal there we’ll find out about later. But this administration is expediting visas for western Africa.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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