For Friday’s CBS Mornings, guest host Natalie Morales shared a recent interview she did with California Rep. and Senate candidate Barbara Lee. The segment covered everything from Lee’s views on race to abortion to the war in Afghanistan, but one thing that remained constant throughout was Morales’s cheerleading of the far-left Lee.
During pre-recorded segment, Lee was shown in 2018 making an incendiary claim against then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, “Madam secretary, you just don't care much about civil rights of black and brown children. This is horrible.”
For Morales, this type of mud-slinging was simply evidence of Lee’s passion, “Her fight against racial bias in schools continues. In an op-ed, she blasted the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action, writing: ‘The remnants of Jim Crow laws and the chains of slavery were meant to be broken, not meant to take new forms.’”
After more clips of Lee, this time talking about abortion, Morales recalled “In a pivotal moment, Lee revealed she had had an illegal abortion in high school.” Accepting all of Lee’s premises, Morales asked her, “And did you ever think we’d be back where women are going to have to fight once again?”
Lee replied, “Never. This is not about do you believe or not believe in abortions, it is about what you want to do based on what your decision is about your own body.”
Flashing back to 2001, Morales recalled “It was a no vote that created a career defining moment for Lee. In the aftermath of the devastating 9/11 attacks. Lee followed her conscience becoming the only member of Congress to vote against giving then-President George W. Bush unlimited war powers.”
Every authorized war in American history has given the president “unlimited war powers” because that’s what the Constitution’s commander-in-chief clause means. Nevertheless, another archived clip of Lee was shown, this time of her declaring “As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.”
What does that mean? Was Lee suggesting that by attacking Al-Qaeda after they attacked us, we were becoming like them? Morales didn’t care to find out, instead recalling, “Her vote led to death threats. But today it’s a view many lawmakers have come to endorse.”
Morales then shifted to Lee’s current race against Rep. Katie Porter, who previously got a similar segment from Morales and who is one of Congress’s worst performance artists, and Rep. Adam Schiff, the serial Russia Collusion fabulist, or as Morales described them, “She is competing with Representatives Katie Porter, known for her tough questioning in Oversight Committee meetings, and Adam Schiff, backed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”
After Morales asked “How do you plan to compete with that,” Lee tried to put a positive spin on her campaign, “the barriers to raising money are there. But that’s not going to stop me. We can make sure that rents are affordable, and remain affordable. We’ve got to do that.”
There were no barriers for Morales to ask actual questions, but that didn’t stop her from lobbing softballs to yet another California Democratic Senate candidate.
This segment was sponsored by Popeyes.
Here is a transcript for the August 4 show:
CBS Mornings
8/4/2023
8:05 AM ET
BARBARA LEE: Madam secretary, you just don't care much about civil rights of black and brown children. This is horrible.
NATALIE MORALES: Her fight against racial bias in schools continues. In an op-ed, she blasted the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action, writing: “The remnants of Jim Crow laws and the chains of slavery were meant to be broken, not meant to take new forms.”
And when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade —
LEE: What in the world is this? Is this America?
MORALES: — Lee shared her outrage.
LEE: You’re trying to criminalize people for making their own reproductive health care decisions. You’re trying to set up an environment for people to spy on each other.
MORALES: In a pivotal moment, Lee revealed she had had an illegal abortion in high school.
LEE: It was a dark back alley. It was about 10:30 at night. The doctor had a white coat on, there was light above the bed, and I mean, I remember it very vividly like it was yesterday that this happened.
MORALES: Did you hide it from people here?
LEE: Everybody. To live with that trauma and that stigma, the fear around it, the shame around it, and oh, it was like, I felt horrible.
MORALES: And did you ever think we’d be back where women are going to have to fight once again?
LEE: Never. This is not about do you believe or not believe in abortions, it is about what you want to do based on what your decision is about your own body.
MORALES: We continued our conversation at Mills College in Oakland, her alma mater. It was here she met Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress. She ignited Lee’s passion for politics.
LEE: Right now, we have the MAGA extremist Republicans who are fighting to take away our democratic rights, and we need more fighters who are going to say, no, who are going to stop this from taking place.
MORALES: It was a no vote that created a career defining moment for Lee. In the aftermath of the devastating 9/11 attacks. Lee followed her conscience becoming the only member of Congress to vote against giving then-President George W. Bush unlimited war powers.
LEE: As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.
MORALES: Her vote led to death threats. But today it’s a view many lawmakers have come to endorse. At 77, Lee is in perhaps the toughest fight of her political career, a race for the 2024 seat long held by outgoing Senator Dianne Feinstein.
LEE: So when someone tries to tell me that a Black woman of my age with all the experience I bring to the table can’t win a fight, I just smile to myself and I say watch me.
MORALES: She is competing with Representatives Katie Porter, known for her tough questioning in Oversight Committee meetings, and Adam Schiff, backed by former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi. One advantage that both Representatives Porter and Schiff have over you is campaign money, you have fallen behind. How do you plan to compete with that?
LEE: Well, it’s not I have fallen behind. I have been raising money over the years for our Democratic Party, for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, for women, for women of color, and in fact, the barriers to raising money are there. But that’s not going to stop me. We can make sure that rents are affordable, and remain affordable. We’ve got to do that.
MORALES: If elected, she’d be the only Black woman in the Senate.
