Just a few hours after their atrocious performance in the third Republican presidential debate, two of the co-moderators from CNBC joined MSNBC’s Chris Matthews to double down on their liberal stances with John Harwood refusing to admit he lied regarding Senator Marco Rubio’s tax plan while Sharon Epperson trashed Carly Fiorina and how Republican candidates supposedly “don't really care about the facts.”
Introduced by the bumbling Matthews as “completely straight reports” who are out there to “try to get the facts,” he first teed up Harwood to explain that one of the goals set by the moderators was simply to inquire “about their tax plans and the distributional of income, income inequality.”
When the candidates (and actually, virtually everyone else) saw “some of those questions” as “hostile,” Harwood cried foul by blaming the candidates: “[Y]ou know, some of those questions, especially given the prescriptions they are offering, are questions that feel hostile to those Republicans candidates and, you know, that’s life in the big city.”
Epperson was equally as unsympathetic as she tried to paint herself as tasked with the arduous burden of “try[ing] to get people to talk about the issues that matter to the American people, get the candidates to discuss issues that matter to people’s wallets.”
The conversation then took an unprovoked turn as Epperson lashed out at Carly Fiorina:
And to ask Carly Fiorina about the sharing economy and what’s going to be done in terms of people being able to save for retirement and have her say the federal government should do nothing about it, that was telling for the American people who are part of the sharing economy to know that if Carly is president, she would not do anything to help you with your retirement.
Moments later, Harwood alluded to his now well-publicized exchange in which he accused Rubio of lying about his tax proposal. Instead of fessing up to his errors, Harwood ducked and covered by maintaining that he was in the one in the know:
You know, Senator Rubio said to me that I had misstated something about his tax plan that was not true. I didn’t misstate it about his tax plan and as I explained to him, provides greater after tax income gain for the top one percent than middle.
Before giving Epperson her final chance to speak, Matthews lamented that, based on Wednesday’s debate, the next one on the GOP side won’t be a friendly experience for the moderators (even though this writer is certain Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo and Neil Cavuto will be the exact opposite of the obnoxious CNBC crew):
Sharon, this tells me that the next time around will be tougher around for reporters. I mean, because if they think they can buffalo a reporter with the facts to month they will buffalo them, just whack them out of the way and hope that time will run out.
Showing her disdain for Republicans and their ideas, Epperson whined that “[t]hey’re hoping people don't really care about the facts and I think they’re wrong about that.”
Touting the views of liberal college students, Epperson concluded by throwing more shade at the GOP:
If you talk to the students here at the University of Colorado, they care about student debt. They want to hear what these candidates have to say about it and the fact that they kinda gloss over the issue is something that really matters to them. If they want millennial votes, if they want votes of a wide range of people in the electorate, they’re going to have to answer the tough questions[.]
The relevant portions of the transcript from the 10:00 p.m. Eastern edition of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews on October 28 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews: Special Edition
October 28, 2015
11:52 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I know both of you are completely straight reporters, you try to get the facts. What was your goal tonight before you knew the onslaught of ridicule was coming your way? What was your goal in the two hour to give voters what they needed?
JOHN HARWOOD: Well, I wanted to do two things. One, was to play out the divide in the Republican field between the outsiders, Trump and Carson and the traditional candidates. We saw it the last few days it. John Kasich saying there’s crazy stuff happening in our party. We need to get serious, so let him make that case. Let them respond to the case. The second thing was to try to get the candidates to defend the and explain the economic proposals that they had to help average workers in this economy and so we asked a lot about their tax plans and the distributional of income, income inequality and, you know, some of those questions, especially given the prescriptions they are offering, are questions that feel hostile to those Republicans candidates and, you know, that’s life in the big city.
MATTHEWS: Asking someone to fill in the blanks to give a flash on the bones and explain something in real terms and also show that it adds up is a challenge.
SHARON EPPERSON: It is a challenge.
MATTHEWS: I mean, to the candidate. They don't want to be told to explain.
EPPERSON: Exactly and you know, as CNBC's senior personal finance correspondent, my goal was to come in and try to get people to talk about the issues that matter to the American people, get the candidates to discuss issues that matter to people’s wallets and to ask Carly Fiorina about the sharing economy and what’s going to be done in terms of people being able to save for retirement and have her say the federal government should do nothing about it, that was telling for the American people who are part of the sharing economy to know that if Carly is president, she would not do anything to help you with your retirement.
MATTHEWS: Yeah, and the challenge of television interviews is you can ask the question and the person who answers it can turn it into an adversarial discussion and there is no referee to come along and say, you are right, so you have to get them in their answer to acknowledge they are to answering it or give you the answer, but I noticed tonight they were doing different things than that. They were just saying, we are right, you're wrong. They said they just dictated the verdict and they were the winners.
HARWOOD: There were a lot of conservatives before the debate who were urging them to go hard after the media and that's what they did.
MATTHEWS: Where was that? Where was that?
HARWOOD: Oh, I saw a lot of that online, on Twitter, articles saying that they were anticipating a debate that was unfair to Republicans.
MATTHEWS: Trump was saying that all over the place.
HARWOOD: Well, sure, but look what happened. Donald Trump came out on the campaign in the debate and denied that he had ever said anything and —
MATTHEWS: Thank God you found the material.
HARWOOD — finally said the material that said it was on his own websites. You know, Senator Rubio said to me that I had misstated something about his tax plan that was not true. I didn’t misstate it about his tax plan and as I explained to him, provides greater after tax income gain for the top one percent than middle.
MATTHEWS: Sharon, this tells me that the next time around will be tougher around for reporters. I mean, because if they think they can buffalo a reporter with the facts to month they will buffalo them, just whack them out of the way and hope that time will run out.
EPPERSON: They’re hoping people don't really care about the facts and I think they’re wrong about that. If you talk to the students here at the University of Colorado, they care about student deb. They want to hear what these candidates have to say about it and the fact that they kinda gloss over the issue is something that really matters to them. If they want millennial votes, if they want votes of a wide range of people in the electorate, they’re going to have to answer the tough questions[.]
