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."
House Democrats are scrambling to hold a vote as soon as Tuesday on President Joe Biden's economic agenda — both the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the $1.85 trillion social safety net and climate bill. With Biden still overseas, the bill stands in flux. Jennifer Haberkorn, congressional reporter at the Los Angeles Times, joined Cheddar's "Opening Bell" to discuss.
Lauren Brody, author of "The Fifth Trimester," joined Cheddar to talk about the ongoing fight for a national paid family leave policy after it was cut from the Democratic reconciliation bill negotiation reportedly due to objections from Senator Manchin. Brody discussed how parents are often forced to choose between work and caring for their family and newborns — or even taking time to deal with a traumatic loss. "Frankly, it's appalling to me that we live in a place that doesn't support people who have experienced the death of a baby and then had to go right back to work," she noted.
Even with pandemic lockdowns, greenhouse gas levels reached new highs in 2020, according to the World Meteorological Organization. This report comes just a week ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, otherwise known as Cop26. Shannon Osaka, climate policy and solutions reporter at Grist, joined Cheddar's Between Bells to discuss.
Paid family & medical leave is left out of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better domestic policy plan. Abby Vesoulis, reporter for TIME joins Cheddar News to breakdown what this means for Americans.
Carlo's flying solo today, talking COP26 and climate change, another racially charged trial gets underway, SCOTUS takes on abortion and a stunning rise in traffic deaths points to a bigger societal breakdown sparked by the pandemic.
World leaders will converge this weekend at the 2021 G20 Summit in Rome and the UN COP26 conference in Glasgow with the climate crisis on the agenda. Lord Adair Turner, chair of the Energy Transitions Commission, joined Cheddar to discuss what people can expect to come out of the climate-focused conferences. Turner also noted that one of the biggest hurdles for the attending nations will be coming to a uniform decision on expanding on the Paris Climate Accord goals that have become insufficient to prevent global warming by 1.5 degrees celsius.
Emily Tisch Sussman, senior advisor at Paid Leave US, joined Cheddar's "Between Bells" to discuss paid leave being stripped from the latest budget bill and why it is crucial for parents to have paid time off. Sussman said the pandemic, in particular, highlighted the disparity between women, who left the work force in droves to care for family, and men who continue to work and be rehired as impacted sectors of the economy return.
The Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq each ended Friday's session at a record high as stocks rallied into the green. Chris Vecchio, Senior Analyst at DailyFX, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says this was an 'October to remember' for Wall Street.
