Everyone, from experts to average voters to even President Trump himself, has graded the federal response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The president's grade for himself is invariably optimistic and self-congratulatory: a 10 out of 10.
Experts have been harsher, with grades ranging from B-minus to D-minus.
Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif. 7th District), a doctor himself, added his voice to the chorus of experts on Monday, giving the commander-in-chief a C-minus.
"That might be generous," Bera he told Cheddar.
The main criteria Bera used in making his judgment was the lack of widespread diagnostic testing for the coronavirus, something that experts have routinely pointed to as a necessary component for re-opening large swaths of the economy.
"There's no way we can start to lift the stay at home orders until every community has abundant diagnostic testing," Bera said.
Confusion and mistakes in the federal bureaucracy reportedly delayed the federal testing effort for weeks early on in the outbreak, and while the administration has recently touted the number of tests reaching four million, that still represents just over 1 percent of the U.S. population.
The White House faces increasing calls from governors for federal help on testing, while the administration insists governors can do more on their own.
"To try to push this off, to say that the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing — somehow we aren't doing our job — is just absolutely false," said Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Md.) on CNN on Sunday. "Every governor in America has been pushing and fighting and clawing to get more tests, not only from the federal government but from every private lab in America and from all across the world, and we continue to do so."
Bera emphasized the importance of deferring to governors when it comes to things like testing.
"I would listen to the governors," he said. "They're closer to what's happening in their states."
Getting into the politics, the congressman also contrasted how the president has responded to the crisis with how he estimates former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, would handle it. Bera endorsed Biden in December.
He predicted that the electorate in November would judge the president harshly for his coronavirus response.
"I think we're going to look at the incumbent, Donald Trump, and recognize that he got us into this mess," Bera said. "He didn't create the virus, but his lack of ability to get ahead of this, his lack of ability to prepare the country. He wasted and squandered time."
Catching you up on the stories you need to know this morning, the U.S. could soon get its first major gun safety law in years, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. capitol holds its second hearing, and today might just be the day the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, and decides on new gun laws.
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Benefits brokerage, Nava Benefits, raised $40 million in a Series B round. Nava says it's on a mission to fix healthcare, one benefits plan at a time. The startup is working to bring benefits to small business that are normally available to only Fortune 500 companies. Brandon Weber, Co-Founder and CEO of Nava Benefits, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
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March For Our Lives will be returning this weekend to Washington, DC, in the wake of the recent mass shooting seen throughout the country. Marchers include Yolanda Renee King, the only granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr. She joined Cheddar News to discuss the importance of the march and activism in general. "I just think that it's so important to have these rallies because we need to demand to our leaders and politicians that they pass legislation and that and we actually need to see action," she said.
Erika Alexander and Whitney Dow, directors of 'The Big Payback,' join Cheddar News to discuss their new film, 'The Big Payback.' It premieres Saturday, June 11 at the Tribeca Festival.
