President Biden might not need a communications staff after Thursday's installment of CNN Newsroom. The afternoon show went into full damage control mode in an attempt to clean up Biden's Wednesday remarks that cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2022 midterms, even after Press Secretary Jen Psaki backtracked from Biden's initial remarks.
Host Alisyn Camerota wondered what the big deal was, after all there are Republicans "who supported Trump's false election claims won elections to serve as local judges and election inspectors. This is what President Biden was referring to, I think."
Politico White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez agreed and claimed the entire controversy is simply because Biden gave inartful response: "Yeah, I agree with you, Alisyn. And look, should the president have been more clear and careful in his statement? Yes. Should the press seek clarification and the White House has sought to clarify what he meant, which was to talk about election subversion? Yes. They should do that."
Barron-Lopez also rebuked fellow journalists for getting "distracted" by the issue:
But it also shouldn't distract us in the press from the larger point and that’s that there is one party that is overwhelmingly perpetuating election lies and there are a lot of Republican candidates that are running on the basis of furthering those lies and are running saying that they may not certify future election results or that they wouldn't have certified the 2020 election results...So these are legitimate concerns and to compare Biden's comments yesterday to years of Trump sowing, sowing doubt about the election, saying that it was rigged, saying that it was stolen, is a false equivalence.
Camerota's fellow co-host, Victor Blackwell, finally got around to sharing what Biden actually said in an attempt to wrap up the 2022 portion of the segment: "To be clear about what the president said, just so we have the quote as part of the conversation, what the president said was 'the prospect of an illegitimate election is in direct proportion to us [not] being able to get these reforms passed,' suggesting that if these laws are not passed, the John Lewis Voter Rights Act and others, that, that could be related to a legitimate or illegitimate election in 2022."
Blackwell then tried to change the topic, asking The Atlantic's Ron Brownstein why Democrats took a vote on repealing the filibuster they knew they would lose. However, before answering that question, Brownstein also condemned the media for focusing on Biden's remarks: "...first, I second everything Laura said, because I think what we're seeing in this controversy over the past 24 hours says more about the failure of journalism to recognize the magnitude of the threat to democracy that we're facing than it does about Biden who admittedly could have been more clear, not for the first time in his career."
Interestingly enough, CNN's attempt to clean up for Biden ignored that on Thursday Psaki declared on no less than four occasions that Biden believes 2022 will be legitimate.
This segment was sponsored by Visionworks.
Here is a transcript for the January 20 show:
CNN CNN Newsroom with Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell
1/20/2022
2:40 PM ET
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Let me just give people some examples if they haven't seen them yet. Wayne County, Michigan, a GOP supporter of Trump’s big election lie was selected to the board of canvassers which will certify the election results. Genesee County, Michigan, a 13-year veteran of county canvassing board lost her seat because she said correctly there was no evidence of widespread fraud. Lancaster County, your county, Pennsylvania, handful of candidates, who supported Trump's false election claims won elections to serve as local judges and election inspectors. This is what President Biden was referring to, I think.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Yeah, I agree with you, Alisyn. And look, should the president have been more clear and careful in his statement? Yes. Should the press seek clarification and the White House has sought to clarify what he meant, which was to talk about election subversion? Yes. They should do that. But it also shouldn't distract us in the press from the larger point and that’s that there is one party that is overwhelmingly perpetuating election lies and there are a lot of Republican candidates that are running on the basis of furthering those lies and are running saying that they may not certify future election results or that they wouldn't have certified the 2020 election results. One example again is David Perdue in Georgia who’s running for governor there and he has launched an entire platform on Trump's lies of a stolen election and has said that he would not have certified the 2020 election results. So these are legitimate concerns and to compare Biden's comments yesterday to years of Trump sowing, sowing doubt about the election, saying that it was rigged, saying that it was stolen, is a false equivalence.
VICTOR BLACKWELL: And to be clear about what the president said, just so we have the quote as part of the conversation, what the president said was “the prospect of an illegitimate election is in direct proportion to us being able to get these reforms passed,” suggesting that if these laws are not passed, the John Lewis Voter Rights Act and others, that, that could be related to a legitimate or illegitimate election in 2022. But, Ron, let me come to you on specifically your new piece in "The Atlantic, you know, there have been questions about why call a vote on something if you don't have the votes, to the question to Leader Schumer. And you say that this shows that there's been a dramatic shift on the filibuster in the party. Explain that.
RON BROWNSTEIN: And by the way, first, I second everything Laura said, because I think what we're seeing in this controversy over the past 24 hours says more about the failure of journalism to recognize the magnitude of the threat to democracy that we're facing than it does about Biden who admittedly could have been more clear, not for the first time in his career.
