CBS This Morning co-host Charlie Rose on Friday demanded that Bernie Sanders retreat from his tough new attacks against the Democratic front-runner. Rose, who once began a Clinton interview by reading a poem to his “friend,” lectured Sanders: “The tenor of this campaign has changed when you're questioning the qualifications of a person to be president.”
Shocked at the Vermont Senator’s aggressive tone, Rose continued, “But don't you owe it to yourself and those people who may vote for you to know more than simply look at a headline? You looked at a headline and then responded questioning her qualifications.”
Regarding Sanders’s hard-hitting critique on Iraq, Rose stammered, “You said that Clinton should apologize for Iraq war deaths. Do you really [believe that]?”
Experiencing the sting of the media’s pro-Clinton bias, Sanders retorted, “This is after I was asked to apologize for the tragedy in Sandy Hook. You know, put these things in the context.” Undeterred, Rose continued, “I'm asking where the tenor of this campaign is going and is that going too far to say she bears responsibility for Iraqi war deaths?”
Part of this interview aired on Thursday’s CBS Evening News. There, Rose complained, “Why can't you simply say, ‘Yes, she has a first-rate resume in terms of a life in public service’”?
None of this should be surprising coming from Rose. On the July 17, 2014 edition of PBS’s Charlie Rose, he told viewers, “I consider Hillary Clinton a friend.” He then proceeded to heap praise on the Democrat by reading from a Maya Angelou poem. Again, this kind of fawning was during an interview:
CHARLIE ROSE: [Quoting poem] "There is a world of difference between being a woman and a being an old female. If you're born a girl, grow up, and live long enough, you can become an old female. But to become a woman is a serious matter. A woman takes responsibility for the times she takes up and the space she occupies. Hillary Clinton is a woman."
This has been a good week for Clinton on the morning shows. On Monday, George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton operative and Clinton Foundation donor, interviewed the candidate. He skipped her e-mail scandal and avoided telling viewers about his conflict of interest.
A transcript of the CBS This Morning segment, which aired at 7:08am on April 8, is below:
4/8/16
7:08CHARLIE ROSE: We also asked Senator Sanders why he said Secretary Clinton should apologize to the families of Americans killed in the Iraq War. And he addressed why negative attacks between the two of them have intensified. [To Sanders.] The tenor of this campaign has changed when you're questioning the qualification of a person to be president. Whether their questioning your qualifications, which they say they haven't.
BERNIE SANDERS: All I'm saying—
ROSE: — or you’re questioning their qualifications?
SANDERS: You're right. You’re right. Okay? But what I want to say is when I see the headlines, “Clinton questions whether Sanders is qualified to be president,” you know what? We are going to respond.
ROSE: But don't you owe it to yourself and those people who may vote for you to know more than simply look at a headline? You looked at a headline and then responded questioning her qualifications.
SANDERS: Oh, Charlie, it's not a question of a headline. Here, something else. I mean, after we won in Wisconsin, I think the Clinton campaign — that was our sixth victory in seven states. I think what they have said publicly is the tenor is going to change. They are going to go much more negative on us and they have. That's the fact.
ROSE: Take a listen to this. This is what you said. You said that Clinton should apologize for Iraq war deaths. Do you really —
SANDERS: For what?
ROSE: For Iraqi war deaths.
SANDERS: This is after I was asked to apologize for the tragedy in Sandy Hook. You know, put these things in the context.
ROSE: But, again, it's tit for tat.
SANDERS: It is tit for tat but I, you know, responding to attacks being made against me.
ROSE: I'm asking where the tenor of this campaign is going and is that going too far to say she bears responsibility for Iraqi war deaths?
SANDERS: Do I bear responsibility for the tragedy for the horrors of Sandy Hook? So, you know, let's get off that. Of course, she didn't bear responsibility. She voted for the war in Iraq. That was a very bad vote in my view. Do I hold her accountable? No. [Taped interview ends.]
NORAH O’DONNELL: Wow. He didn't really answer the question.
ROSE: Which question?
VINITA NAIR: Well, he answered the question with a question. It seems like had he very defensive response for all of the actions of late.
ROSE: He really suggested several times that, you know, that they started it and he is talking about surrogates. And that he has to respond because that is the way politics is today, in his own words.
O’DONNELL: Good interview. New York will be a key state.
