Reacting to a new CNN poll finding Hillary Clinton's poll numbers slipping, New Day's Chris Cuomo admitted to journalistic boosting of Bernie Sanders. The anchor insisted, "We, and a lot in the media, were encouraging of Bernie Sanders getting in the race because the senator from Vermont does provoke a lot of passion from the left part of that party."
Apparently speaking for the media at large, Cuomo proclaimed, "We thought that that would be an interesting mix of ideas because, certainly, the Clintons are more known for the centrism that they present to the Democrats." Co-anchor Alisyn Camerota lectured, "It's fun to have a lot of people in the race for the media to cover."
CNN editor Mark Preston said of Sanders: "I do think there is something to be said about the Bernie Sanders candidacy, and that is that he is reaching and electrifying a certain part of the base that doesn't think the Obama administration has been liberal enough."
Cuomo boosting the "passion" from the "left part" of the Democratic Party makes sense. After all, this is the same man who pushed Donald Trump to support abortion rights and derided Marco Rubio's "backward" position on the social issue.
A partial transcript of the August 19 segment is below:
New Day
8/19/158:07am ET
JEFF ZELENY: Alisyn, one of the things they're looking at to see, is she vulnerable in a general election? Is she even vulnerable in a primary campaign. And I think it's clear that she is. Her numbers have gone down 10 points in the last month. Bernie Sanders' have gone up. So if we were to chart this out it would look like a stock market of one stock that's climbing, one stock that's falling.
So in the middle of all this sits Vice President Biden's decision. What is he going to do? It's one part of his calculus to see if there is an opening but not the entire part. I'm told by his advisors that he's going to make a gut decision based on if this would be helpful for him, if it would be sort of therapeutic for him to run, if, frankly, he would be having fun running. But no question there is opening for someone else. And one number that popped out: Bernie Sanders supporters are more enthusiastic. They are diehard supporters who are going to be there to the end. The question is, can he gain any more Democrats from the Clinton side? And we'll just have to wait and see over the next six months for the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
CHRIS CUOMO: We, and a lot in the media, were encouraging of Bernie Sanders getting in the race because the senator from Vermont does provoke a lot of passion from the left part of that party. We thought that that would be an interesting mix of ideas because, certainly, the Clintons are more known for the centrism that they present to the Democrats.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: It's fun to have a lot of people in the race for the media to cover.
CUOMO: I also think it makes it better for people to have choices. However, what Jeff just said, Mark, let's chew on that one more second. He says you know you see one stock going up, one stock going down. However, it's why one stock is going up and one stock is going down. Is this about more in the marketplace or about there being a weakness in Hillary Clinton? Because as you know a lot of Biden's people are worried that he has a ceiling on him, that he's at 14 or 15 percent right now but he may only get to 25 or 30 percent within the party and that's part of their calculus as well. You think she's on the way down, or this is just the mix increasing?
PRESTON: I think it's the mix. A couple things here. One is when you look at Joe Biden I don't think there's a yearning for a Joe Biden presidency necessarily. I mean, Hillary Clinton still has the majority of the Democratic Party behind her. What they want to see is a race. Right now the only viable option a lot of people think, certainly when you look at the more centrist part of the Democrat Party, is Joe Biden. And if you go back to 2007, 2008, what made Barack Obama so strong was the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that didn't get over until June of 2008 that year. That forced Barack Obama to keep his political operation moving.
But I do think there is something to be said about the Bernie Sanders candidacy, and that is that he is reaching and electrifying a certain part of the base that doesn't think the Obama administration has been liberal enough. And in many ways Hillary Clinton is going to have to follow Bernie Sanders down that path on some issues.
