During Wednesday’s White House briefing, NBC reporter Hallie Jackson asked if President Trump was “expending too much political capital on a race that Republicans should be winning easily,” referring to Georgia’s special congressional election. In response, Press Secretary Sean Spicer blasted the absurd liberal media narrative that it was a “symbolic” or “emotional” victory for Democrats despite their candidate falling short.
“I thought that some of the coverage was a little intriguing as I watched it....Democrats went all in on this race. They spent over $8.3 million. They said on the record that their goal was to win this race. They lost. And the reaction has somewhat been, you know, that they almost won. No, they lost,” Spicer declared.
Jackson interjected by pointing to the upcoming runoff between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel in June: “Technically there’s still two months left though, right?” Spicer pushed back: “No, not in terms of what their stated goal was. They said that their goal last night was to win the race with over 50%....They didn’t run for a runoff, they ran to win last night, and they lost.”
He lectured the journalists in the room: “And so, anything sort of describing that as a loss is – is sort of inconceivable to me in the sense that that’s literally what they said their goal was to do....They put all the money that they had in there, they put all the firepower, and they came up short. So, it’s a loss.”
Proving Spicer’s point, just hours earlier on MSNBC, anchor Stephanie Ruhle spun the electoral result as a “symbolic” victory for Ossoff.
On ABC’s Good Morning America, political analyst John Avlon argued that it was an “emotional victory.”
On NBC’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie cheered Ossoff “nearly pulling off the shocking upset” and warned that the election was an “ominous sign” for Republicans.
Here is a transcript of Spicer’s April 19 exchange with Jackson:
12:36 PM ET
(...)
HALLIE JACKSON: I want to ask about GA – Georgia 6th here. Two quick ones on that. Is the President planning to campaign for the Republican challenger there? Will he go to Georgia to get out the vote?
SEAN SPICER: I don't know. If needed, I think the President’s going to make sure that he does everything he can to maintain majorities and further the party. But we’ll see if we’re needed.
JACKSON: Is he expending too much political capital on a race that Republicans should be winning easily?
SPICER: Well, you know, it’s interesting. I thought that some of the coverage was a little intriguing as I watched it. Suddenly – the Democrats went all in on this race. They spent over $8.3 million. They said on the record that their goal was to win this race. They lost. And the reaction has somewhat been, you know, that they almost won. No, they lost. They made very clear what their goal was in this race. They spent $8.3 million and threw everything, including the kitchen sink, at it and lost. And so –
JACKSON: Technically there’s still two months left though, right?
SPICER: No, not in terms of what their stated goal was. They said that their goal last night was to win the race with over 50%. They spent $8.3 million. They didn’t run for a runoff, they ran to win last night, and they lost. And so, anything sort of describing that as a loss is – is sort of inconceivable to me in the sense that that’s literally what they said their goal was to do. And they said, “We want to win Tuesday night with over 50%.” They came up short of their goal. They put all the money that they had in there, they put all the firepower, and they came up short. So, it’s a loss.
(...)
