John McGuire took Keith Sonderling, the acting Secretary of Labor, to the UVA Medical Center this week, for what was basically a walking photo-op for the MAGA congressman, who is facing a GOP primary challenge in August, and then, assuming he gets past the primary, he gets Democrat Tom Perriello in the November general election.
ICYMI
My best guess: the suits, both in McGuire’s office and with UVA Health, wanted the media folks to take photos, write a puff piece about this one particular program they were hoping to highlight – Earn While You Learn, which UVA touts as giving students the opportunity to graduate with real world medical experience debt-free – and then go on to the next story.
To the credit of the PR people at UVA Health and on the staff of John McGuire, NBC29 did as expected.
Seriously, how different is this “reporting” from the TV station vis-à-vis the press release on McGuire’s House website?
Embarrassing.
Note to the reporter who put this one together: you don’t work for John McGuire or UVA Health.
One reporter on the scene did what she was supposed to do: Sandy Hausman at Radio IQ.
Hausman wrote up how McGuire and Sonderling agreed to a quick press conference, and how she asked McGuire “what he would like to tell constituents who could no longer afford insurance premiums.”
First non-answer from McGuire:
“We are actually working to make things more affordable. In the Fifth Congressional District, working with Glenn Youngkin, the previous governor, and President Trump, we have negotiated almost $20 billion in investment into this district. That’s almost 7,000 high-paying jobs.”
The question was about people who can no longer afford insurance premiums.
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
Hausman wrote that McGuire “then attacked Democrats for the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact signed more than 30 years ago, claiming it had cost Virginia jobs.”
And what might that have to do with people not being able to afford insurance premiums?
Maybe McGuire was doing the weave.
Hausman wrote that the next question was “on what that had to do with ending subsidies for people who needed help to pay for insurance through the Affordable Care Act.”
“They were designed, by code, for the pandemic, so once the pandemic was over, you would expect them to expired, and they did expire,” McGuire answered.
Narrator: they didn’t have to expire. There were efforts to extend the subsidies. McGuire voted against them.
Hausman finished up her reporting noting that “McGuire then said the Affordable Care Act was not affordable, that the federal government is throwing taxpayer money away, and we need to come up with a healthcare system that makes more sense. If it was a business, he said, it would be out of business.”
Guarantee he doesn’t agree to any more quickie press conferences if Sandy Hausman is in the media entourage.
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Chris Graham
