Not long after Midnight Eastern time on Wednesday after Super Tuesday, CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod and senior political analyst Gloria Borger repeatedly lectured fellow panelist and former Ted Cruz communications director Amanda Carpenter by telling her that Cruz would be unable to best unite the Republican Party in November since he’s called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar.
The commentators from the two liberal panelists came in reaction to Carpenter succinctly explaining that “Trump won’t be able to unite the party” based on his “brutal campaign that he’s run against his opponents” and the “the insults he's hurled” at scores of Americans (e.g. immigrants, Muslims, and women).
Axelrod then chimed in to brush aside Trump’s remarks in telling Carpenter that since “Cruz called the Majority Leader of the Senate a liar on the floor of the Senate,” there’s levels of “antipathy toward him among elements of the party.”
Carpenter argued that Cruz made it clear to voters that he serves as “the best vehicle” to stop Hillary Clinton in November, but that was not enough to hold AC360 host Anderson Cooper from also discrediting Cruz by wondering if what he did to McConnell was “more offensive” than the “old wounds” of a heated campaign since it’s done “on the floor of the Senate” and “calling somebody a liar that seems more direct.”
When finally given the chance to respond, Carpenter fired back:
That is exposing the ways of Washington that people are so angry about. I mean, I was cheering when Ted Cruz gave that speech because as someone who has worked inside Washington and know how those deals go down, for someone to stand on the U.S. floor of the Senate this is how it works, America I'm telling you what’s going on and I will be the one to change that, there’s no problem with that.
Cooper began winding down the segment but not before Borger left aside Trump and tried to tell the Conservative Review writer that Cruz is not a “uniter” of Republicans:
That doesn’t mean you’re a uniter — that doesn’t mean you’re a uniter. That doesn’t mean you can unite people. That’s the problem for Ted Cruz. People don’t believe him when they say he wants to be a uniter. It just doesn’t seem credible to even Republicans.
The relevant portion of the transcript from CNN’s America’s Choice 2016: Super Tuesday on March 2 can be found below.
CNN’s America’s Choice 2016: Super Tuesday
February 2, 2016
12:15 a.m. Eastern
AMANDA CARPENTER: Donald Trump won't be able to unite the party. I have seen no signal — zero signal that he would — but let's look at the brutal campaign that he's run against his opponents. He has called Ted Cruz a liar, Marco Rubio a light weight. I mean, we can go through all the insults he's hurled to other people. How could he possibly be the one to bring people over to his side to regain their trust of people like me?
DAVID AXELROD: But Amanda, your — Ted Cruz called the Majority Leader of the Senate a liar on the floor of the Senate. There is such antipathy toward him among elements of the party. How can he be the guy who brings the party together?
CARPENTER: That’s a much different scenario —
GLORIA BORGER: It’s question — there isn’t anybody.
CARPENTER: — when you’re campaigning against Washington from the inside Washington and going out on the campaign trail. I mean, look, he’s had an open appeal tonight please come join my campaign, if you want to win, if you want stop Hillary, you need to stop Trump and I'm the best vehicle to do that.
ANDERSON COOPER: Isn't the argument — more to David's argument which isn't it more offensive? I mean, things happen on the campaign trail and then it's over and then sort of old wounds are sewn up, to actually be on the floor of the Senate calling somebody a liar that seems more direct.
BORGER: And campaigning against your colleagues in the Senate.
CARPENTER: That is exposing the ways of Washington that people are so angry about. I mean, I was cheering when Ted Cruz gave that speech because as someone who has worked inside Washington and know how those deals go down, for someone to stand on the U.S. floor of the Senate this is how it works, America I'm telling you what’s going on and I will be the one to change that, there’s no problem with that.
BORGER: That doesn’t mean you’re a uniter — that doesn’t mean you’re a uniter. That doesn’t mean you can unite people. That’s the problem for Ted Cruz. People don’t believe him when they say he wants to be a uniter. It just doesn’t seem credible to even Republicans.
CARPENTER: Let me explain this case a little bit more since I did work for the guy. He understands that America is united against Washington and he said this is the difference between me and Donald Trump. Donald Trump will go shake hands with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, strike deals with Mitch McConnell. I will stand up to the bad deals in Washington. That is the case for his campaign.
BILL PRESS: He’s been trying to make that case. He can’t say that. He can’t.
