Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who is an Independent, was interviewed by Anderson Cooper of CNN recently. Mayor Goodman wants to open her city up for business Cooper tried to get to the bottom of concerns shared by most Americans regarding the seemingly distinct possibility that we seem to be rushing to re-open this country too soon.
Goodman repeatedly seemed to acknowledge that Cooper is a capable reporter, and seemed to imply – also repeatedly – that he was trying to make her appear foolish, or say something that she might regret.
It was a strange video to watch, with Goodman continually skirting the bottom-line issue of whether or not it would be wise to insist on reopening businesses in her city, when there appeared to be a lack of oversight regarding safety measures. She kept reiterating that it was not her responsibility to assure that each casino did their part to assure that social distancing measures continued to be observed.
Goodman also seemed to question whether it was social distancing efforts that had kept the numbers of infected and dead in the city relatively low, at least compared to many other cities and states in the country. She suggested that it seems unfair that the 2.3 million residents of her city should be forced to stay at home, often without pay, while only 150 residents of the city had died from Covid-19. She stated that her city could be a model for the rest of the country in terms of re-opening, and rejected Cooper’s assertions that this was tantamount to making the people of her city the equivalent of an open experiment.
Throughout the interview, Cooper betrayed his clear frustration and even confusion at times, as Goodman seemed to attempt to evade direct answers and/or responsibility regarding the possibility of reopening.
I must say that there are general doubts on my end regarding Cooper’s fairness, as he always seemed to me one of those people who particularly seemed to be displeased with the possibility of Bernie Sanders emerging as the Democratic nominee. He seemed to insist on painting him as a fringe candidate throughout the 2016 campaign, despite poll numbers and huge rally turnouts that showed quite the opposite was true. He is a mainstream reporter all the way, and thus, I often viewed him as more a part of the problem regarding the big media, rather than the solution, or a so-called “responsible” journalist.
That said, I felt that he did his job reasonably well regarding this matter, effectively grilling the mayor of a major American city who wants to reopen her city for business without any serious efforts at overseeing the safety of those who would both patronize and work in those businesses. He seemed to expose her weaknesses and refusal to take responsibility, and took her to task for her position.
It should be remembered that a wide majority of Americans are opposed to reopening the country back for business too soon. And it is specifically because of this kind of irresponsibility on the part of Goodman and other elected officials that these concerns feel very real. After all, we certainly do not want to see a second wave of the coronavirus, and opening cities and businesses up again too soon would almost guarantee that there would indeed be another wave, and that the crisis would actually get a second life.
Anderson Cooper presses Las Vegas mayor over wish to reopen
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman (I) says that she wants to reopen the city's casinos, restaurants and entertainment venues for business so people can get back to work. CNN's Anderson Cooper asks her if that's safe given the data about the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: CNNhttps://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/04/22/las-vegas-mayor-carolyn-goodman-reopen-coronavirus-entire-interview-anderson-cooper-sot-nr-vpx.cnn
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