On Friday, CNN Newsroom host John King and AP Washington bureau chief Julie Pace welcomed the betrayal of Pence aide Olivia Troye, who made a pro-Biden ad for "Republican Voters Against Trump." The two had a mutual fondness for the word "damning" to describe Troye's attack on President Trump's COVID record. Pace even lamely claimed Troye, the self-proclaimed "McCain Republican," helps Biden pitch himself as "more of a moderate."
It's hard to imagine that if John King's producer quit and made an endorsement ad for Fox News, he would think that was "damning" toward CNN. He'd probably feel betrayed by a disgruntled colleague.
After playing the ad from Republican Voters Against Trump, King sought to downplay any criticism of Troye, whose biggest allegation is that Trump prevented a better response because he's concerned about re-election, "The White House now trying to make the case disgruntled employee, when you leave the White House the Democrats or Never Trumpers try to get you to say things, but it's a pretty damning account for someone who was a senior staff member on the coronavirus task force."
Why would a disgruntled employee narrative be that implausible? Anyone who leaves the White House and bashes Trump gets at least 15 minutes of fame on CNN, with many getting book deals as well.
Pace concurred, arguing that Troye is very helfpul for Biden on two fronts. "One is this is somebody who had an up close view of the president's handling of the coronavirus with a damning assessment and gets to the heart of what Biden is trying to argue about Trump which is he doesn't care about anybody besides himself."
Secondly, Biden has been "trying to position himself as a safe candidate for Republicans who feel that they simply can't stand with President Trump anymore. He makes clear he is more of a moderate, not going to be pulled too far to the left and feel comfortable disgruntled Republicans coming and being with me and I think that this is an example of someone coming from forward saying that is true, 'I validate what Joe Biden says, I feel like this is a safe place for Republican that is don't want to support the president anymore to move toward.'”
Considering Biden's allies have also hyped the possibility of him being the most progressive president since Franklin Roosevelt, maybe the idea that he's "more of a moderate" is badly sliced baloney.
This cheer-the-turncoat segment was sponsored by Gillette.
Here is a transcript for the September 18 show:
CNN
CNN Newsroom
12:20 PM ET
JOHN KING: The White House now trying to make the case disgruntled employee, when you leave the White House the Democrats or Never Trumpers try to get you to say things but it's a pretty damning account for someone who was a senior staff member on the coronavirus task force essentially as I said at the beginning trying to make the case everybody was trying to do this right and do their job and the president was getting in the way.
JULIE PACE: Absolutely, I think for the Biden campaign there are two salient points out of this. One is this is somebody who had an up close view of the president's handling of the coronavirus with a damning assessment and gets to the heart of what Biden is trying to argue about Trump which is he doesn't care about anybody besides himself.And then the second piece of this is that Biden throughout this presidential election is trying to position himself as a safe candidate for Republicans who feel that they simply can't stand with President Trump anymore. He makes clear he is more of a moderate, not going to be pulled too far to the left and feel comfortable disgruntled Republicans coming and being with me and I think that this is an example of someone coming from forward saying that is true, “I validate what Joe Biden says, I feel like this is a safe place for Republican that is don't want to support the president anymore to move toward.”
