Sen. Pryor Awkwardly Stumbles Over Ebola Response (VIDEO)

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor participates in a discussion about increasing college costs and student loans in Little Rock, Ark., Thursday, May29, 2014. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
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Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) stumbled over his response Monday when asked whether the Obama administration has responded appropriately to the Ebola crisis.

“I would say that it’s hard to know because I haven’t heard the latest briefing on that, to know all the details,” Pryor said after a long pause, in response to a question from MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt. “I read the paper and all. But my impression is we have people over there both from the CDC and other medical-type people, and even some engineers to try to build, you know, medical facilities. That’s what they need over there, they need the medical infrastructure.”

Pryor paused again when Hunt asked if the Obama administration had been aggressive enough in its response to the deadly virus.

“Again, I’d have to see the latest numbers,” he said.

Pryor tapped into public concern over the Ebola virus for an ad he ran in August against his rival in the Arkansas Senate race, Rep. Tom Cotton (R). The ad suggested Cotton left Americans vulnerable to a potential Ebola pandemic by voting to cut medical disaster and emergency programs.

Watch below:

h/t The Hill

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Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for dbutch dbutch says:

    “See the latest numbers”? Is this idiot waiting to see how death
    “polls before commenting”? Or is he going to wait to find out how
    much is being spent and then attack the president for violating the
    sequester that cut CDC and other emergency preparedness
    budgets?

  2. Did Pryor switch parties?

  3. Pryor also doesn’t want to laud the ACA.

  4. Avatar for mantan mantan says:

    This media-generated idea that everyone in the public space must be instantly aware and have a position on the very latest tick of the cycle isn’t just absurd it has opened the path to the unchallenged, empty-headed BS from the clown car that dominates daily, lazy media.

  5. I don’t think it was that bad. It was somewhat thoughtful if uninformed. The interviewer was looking for a soundbite and he didn’t give her one.

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