After the Democrats's press conference on Wednesday where they revealed their managers for the upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joined CNN Newsroom co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto to talk about the big takeaway from this super serious moment in American history: that Republicans are a bunch of white men and Democrats aren't.
The descension into identity politics began when Harlow asked Toobin, "Jeffrey Toobin, what did you hear?" Toobin replied, "What I saw was perhaps more interesting than what I heard. These seven people, they look like the Democratic Party" He then compared that to the managers selected by Republicans in 1999, "You know, 20 years ago the house managers were 13 white men."
After Harlow interjected, "That's a great point," Toobin continued to praise, not the Democrats' case, but their racial diversity, "Two African-Americans, an Hispanic woman, four men, three women. The parties, as you saw this in these committee hearings, just look very different. Six of the seven are lawyers. Val Demings was not a lawyer but she was the police chief of Orlando and I think the impact of this group starts with how different they look from the Republican Party."
Sciutto then tried to argue that the diversity of states was also important, "Poppy, you made the point territorial, geographic diversity as well. New York State and California, but Colorado, Florida, Texas. These are important states in November." To which Harlow added, "Because they have to do the job of convincing enough senators to defy Mitch McConnell which is what Jeffrey laid out."
The fact that the Democrats named somebody from Texas has about as much chance of convincing Republicans to defect as Republicans nominating someone from California had in 1999 of getting Democrats to defect. CNN surely knows this, but insists on giving liberal viewers some false hope that the outcome is not pre-determined.
The media love for the managers was not confined to CNN. Over at NBC, Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd were impressed by the managers with, "And people who have proved themselves like Val Demings, former police chief from Orlando, Florida, who did so well in questioning Bob Mueller from Judiciary. People like Zoe Lofgren who had been in all three impeachment attempts- Nixon as a staffer, then of course Clinton and now."
Yes, because Mueller went so well for Democrats that they have not included anything from that report in the articles.
Todd finished by saying this could propel one of them to fame in the near future, " Look in many ways, one of these people—Lindsey Graham was a House manager nobody had ever heard of and he turned that stint into something much bigger so keep an eye on these seven people."
Here are the transcripts for the January 15 shows:
NBC
NBC Special Report
10:25 AM ET
CHUCK TODD: You know, in Washington, we're used to a lot of jockeying for the big, high-profile slots here. I have to say, we have over a dozen House managers in Clinton. Seemed like everybody got to be a House manager. She seemed to narrow it down, she didn’t go over the top, saying “you get a slot and you get a shot.” She really did keep it tight.
ANDREA MITCHELL: And people who have proved themselves like Val Demings, former police chief from Orlando, Florida, who did so well in questioning Bob Mueller from Judiciary. People like Zoe Lofgren who had been in all three impeachment attempts- Nixon as a staffer, then of course Clinton and now.TODD: Look in many ways, one of these people—Lindsey Graham was a House manager nobody had ever heard of and he turned that stint into something much bigger so keep an eye on these seven people.
…
CNN
CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto
10:36 AM ET
POPPY HARLOW: Jeffrey Toobin, what did you hear?
JEFFREY TOOBIN: Well, I think what I saw was perhaps more interesting than what I heard. I mean, these seven people, they look like the Democratic Party. You know, 20 years ago the house managers were 13 white men. These are --
HARLOW: That's a great point.
TOOBIN: Two African-Americans, an Hispanic woman, four men, three women. I mean the parties, and you saw this in these committee hearings, just look very different. The -- six of the seven are lawyers. Val Demings is not a lawyer but she was the police chief of Orlando. So -- and I think the impact of this group starts with how different they look from the Republican Party.
JIM SCIUTTO: And Poppy, you made the point territorial, geographic diversity as well. New York state and California, but Colorado, Florida, Texas. These are important states in November.HARLOW: Because they have to do the job of convincing enough senators to defy Mitch McConnell which is what Jeffrey laid out.
