>> Representative Nancy Pelosi was asked to comment on Trump's declaration that he is
now taking hydroxychloroquine, a scientifically unproven drug when it comes to treating the
Coronavirus and her answer has gotten a lot of attention. Let's take a look.
>> Madam Speaker, what's your reaction to the president saying that he is now taking
hydroxychloroquine?
Are you concerned? >> I hope he's our president and I would rather
he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientist, especially in his
age group and in his, shall we say weight group that is morbidly obese they say. So
I think it's not a good idea.
>> So there are two questions that need to be answered in the story. Number one is Donald
Trump actually considered morbidly obese? We'll answer that in just a minute. And the
second question is, is it true that hydroxychloroquine is unsafe for people who are deemed morbidly
obese? Let's start off with answering the first question.
Honestly, to my surprise, Trump does not qualify as morbidly obese. According to The Guardian
Trump is 73 years old. At his last full checkup in February of 2019, he passed the official
threshold for being considered obese with a body mass index of 30.4. Now According to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a BMI of 40 or above is considered severe
obesity which some also called morbid obesity.
So he is scientifically medically considered obese but not morbidly obese.
>> Yeah. >> Also, go ahead Cenk.
>> Yeah, I gotta jump in fact check there. That is based on Donald Trump's self reported
weight. I mean, he twists the arms of the doctors to say whatever he wants.
One of his doctors admitted to completely lying and having Trump write the letter for
him in an earlier instance. And in fact today there's a story in the rundown that we're
to share with you later about a doctor from the White House putting out a questionable
statement about Trump.
But no one believes that that that's his actual weight but even based on that way, the one
that he forged, he's obese. My guess is his real weight probably does get to morbidly
obese because it's pretty easy to get there honestly as you know.
>> But the real question is if you are morbidly obese is it unsafe to take hydroxychloroquine?
First off, let me just reiterate something that we've said repeatedly on this show, hydroxychloroquine
has not done well in clinical trials as a treatment for Coronavirus. There are way too
many health risks and side effects including negative impacts to the heart which is why
in some clinical trials they actually stopped using hydroxychloroquine because of how dangerous
it was for the study participants.
With that said though, hydroxychloroquine is a drug that is prescribed to many Americans
for lupus for instance or rheumatoid issues and there are morbidly obese people who are
prescribed this drug. It's just the doctors need to be careful in the dosage. So for instance,
one study indicated that hydroxychloroquine is actually stored in lean tissues and is
largely excluded from fat, thereore dosing for hydroxychloroquine should be based on
lean body mass.
So when doctors are deciding what the dosage should be for let's say a heavy set person,
they will do the dosage based on their lean body mass as opposed to their actual body
weight. That's the only clarification I wanted to make. Look, the reason why I'm saying this
is because it's abundantly clear that Nancy Pelosi just wanted to call them fat.
That's it, that's all that was. Like there's nothing else to it.
>> Of course, I knew all along we would get there. Okay, of course that's what this is
about. >> Yeah.
>> Gee, I wonder if we don't need to do a poll on this one, was Nancy Pelosi actually
concerned about Donald Trump's health?
So no, she was not. Now, the real question at hand is was that acceptable or unacceptable
to call him morbidly obese on television? Well, this falls into a lot of different camps.
This one crosses political boundaries because the resistance folks, the establishment people
love little shows of resistance by Nancy Pelosi that are completely substance free.
So to claps like this, or like this, or what however she claps, right?
>> Rips up papers, yeah. >> They're like Yeah, it's brilliant, brilliant.
It's like the greatest thing that ever happened. She rips up paper. They're like brilliant,
why? Because it doesn't affect anything. So Pelosi can do that all day long and her donors
are still thrilled with her because she's still helping Republicans pass bills, helping
all the corporations etc.
So there's another one of those. So my guess is that the establishment folks thought this
was just the best thing they've ever seen, right? And then there's the very sensitive
left. I'm just keeping it real and I'll put it like that who are like, My god, what have
you gone?
What have you gone? It's fat shaming. It's like, well, the worst things that's ever happened.
It's a debacle of epic proportions. Okay, I'm in neither one of those camps as usual.
So I like that she took a little jab at him. I like any jab at Trump. It wouldn't matter
a 1000 times more of she actually blocked this Pentagon Defence Bill that was so overly
bloated, etc.
Of course that would be 1000 times. Is it better if she has a better stimulus bill,
of course, right? But I'll take the jab where I can get it. And of course since I said that
already online I have been accused of fat-shaming because I backed up Nancy Pelosi's insult
to Donald Trump.
I don't know if an overweight person can also be guilty of fat-shaming. The rules are very
complicated. I'm gonna have to consult with a consulologists or something along those
lines to figure it out. >> Yeah, look, I have no leg to stand on.
I have fat shamed myself, specifically one person who I don't really respect as a human
being so I don't consider it fat shaming a human.
But it was when I called Alex Jones a fat F. Okay, but anyway, I don't even want to
get into that discussion because look, for me I get it like it's nice to watch especially
female politicians get under Donald Trump's skin. But I feel like at this moment in time
when hundreds of thousands of Americans are expected to lose their lives because of the
incompetence in the response to this pandemic.
I just desperately wanna see some leadership anywhere, right? And and we haven't seen that
instead, this is kind of devolved into childish name-calling and insults on television. And
the latest example is Donald Trump's response to Nancy Pelosi and here it is.
>> Last night, the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called you morbidly obese.
I just wanted to know what you had to say in response.
>> I don't respond to her. I think she's a waste of time.
>> And then after calling her a waste of time, he said that he thinks that she has some mental
health problems. >> Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> He can't help himself. I watched this one, later he couldn't help but go back and it
wasn't just once. He said it like two or three times, she's sick, she has mental health problems.
He always does projection, he has mental health problems. They shouldn't used the 25th amendment
a long time ago.
Anna the reason I like what Pelosi did even though it's substance free and I would greatly
prefer a substantive response especially in terms of legislation is that at least we're
getting a tiny bit past when they go low. We go so high, we float away in a cloud, and
are completely and utterly ineffectual.
Maybe calling him fat will lead to calling him things that actually do matter and that
they should call him like weak, insecure, loser, pathetic baby
>> I like that. I really do think it would be effective in pointing out the ways in which
he is just this sensitive, weak, pathetic person, right?
Because he positions himself toward his base specifically as like this strong, nationalistic
America first type guy, but instead of constantly being outraged by him and to be fair, he does
outrageous things, he says outrageous things. That outrage only helps solidify the support
he has among Republican voters. I think if you start dismantling this facade of strength
and really show him for who he is, which is this weak little boy.
That's more likely to be effective than constantly talking about how outraged you are or how
aggrieved you are at his insensitive or offensive statements. Those statements only help to
embolden and empower him. >> Yeah, so if we're on the road to using
effective strategy against them which is undercutting their strengths, I mean, shockingly enough,
still a huge percentage of the country thinks that he's smart, which is unbelievable.
By now 98% of the country should realize he's one of the three dumbest people in the country.
So and the fact that they don't recognize that is a great failure of the Democrats because
they let him set the agenda and and set the framing. We should be having a debate about
whether it's his top three dumbest guys in the country or top five dumbest guys in the
country.
And that has tremendous effect as it has in cuz it's real. And so that's among the reasons
why he could not manage this Coronavirus pandemic and why we've lost so many more lives than
we needed to cuz our president is deeply, deeply unintelligent.