Early Wednesday morning on CNN Tonight, host Don Lemon stood by as his liberal panelists Paul Begala and Symone Sanders defended and even praised the disturbing Latino Victory Fund ad that ran before Tuesday’s gubernatorial election in Virginia, painting Republicans and Ed Gillespie voters as Confederate flag-loving murderers running over minority children.
Whenever each would be challenged on the ad, they both deflected and angrily criticized Gillespie (even though he lost) as someone who ran a “racist” campaign bolstered by “a racist, divisive set of ads” raising alarms about MS-13.
CNN political commentator and former Clinton aide Paul Begala kicked it off just after the 12:34 a.m. Eastern mark, complaining that the Democrats faced “this most unlovely and undignified campaign the way that Ed Gillespie ran it and I know Ed and he should be ashamed of himself” for running “a racist, divisive set of ads.”
Former Trump campaign aide and fellow CNN political commentator Jason Miller interjected by mentioning the Latino Victory Fund spot as a disgusting, truly “racist,” and “divisive” ad, but both Begala and Sanders weren’t having it, they instead rushed to its defense:
SYMONE SANDERS: The Latino Victory Fund ad was not — are you calling that ad racist? Because what it did was call-out racism. Ed Gillespie is a —
MILLER: I’ll say that was a disgusting ad
BEGALA: He should be ashamed of himself.
SYMONE SANDERS: What's disgusting is Ed Gillespie stoking the worst parts of the American people. That’s what’s disgusting. There’s nothing disgusting about calling out racism.
MILLER: Wait, so, a Democratic ad where — getting a —
BEGALA: It wasn’t a Democratic ad. [INAUDIBLE]
MILLER: — where the — goes and drives some kids down.
SANDERS: Where the kids are — did you — first of all, let’s talk about the ad since he brought the ad up. That ad was — no.
MILLER: You’re going to say that’s...And they’re trying to say all Gillespie voters are racist.
Sanders continued to provide a virulent defense of the ad: “The ad was, look, the ad was kids of color running and what they were running from was a truck with a bumper sticker with a confederate flag on it...They were saying Ed Gillespie was running a really racist campaign and If you don't like that type of stuff, don’t vote for Ed Gillespie in Virginia.”
Lemon asked his producers to find the ad and a portion of it was shown after the commercial break, but instead of asking Miller, former Cruz aide Amanda Carpenter, or one of the journalists on his massive panel to comment, he let Begala tee it up.
“This is a group called the Latino Victory Fund and it ran an ad. I think it ran once and the candidate, the Democratic candidate, disavowed it right away. He and I think it was an outrageous ad. It was totally unfair, and it came off right away but somehow that is the equivalent of Ed Gillespie putting his name and his image on race-baiting ads which he did day after day after day is not the same. That’s a complete unfair comparison,” Begala shamefully spun.
American Commitment’s Phil Kerpen blew holes in this notion that the Northam camp could have disavowed it since it ended up listed by the campaign as “a coordinated communication” that was worth over $60,000. As for how often it ran, it maintained a heavy social media presence and he provided no evidence to back up his claim that it aired only once.
What’s noteworthy is Begala was behind the claim in the 2012 presidential election implying Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital was responsible for the death of a steelworker’s wife, an assertion he's proud of. So perhaps Begala should have sat this one out.
Alas, Sanders was allowed to continue poisoning viewers by defending the ad while Lemon allowed most of his panel to condemn a Gillespie ad the liberals deemed racist for raising red flags about MS-13's brutality. Here’s Sanders:
So let me say I think that ad is, one, Latino Victory Fund I think Krystal Ball who is the president of the Latino Victory Fund put out a statement saying they said they knew that ad would ruffle feathers. There are lots of people in America, specifically in Virginia that felt directly attacked by a Ed Gillespie candidacy, the type of race he was running and while Paul may not agree with the ad, many other people I think it was also right, politically, for Ralph Northam to also disavow the ad. But the fact of the matter is Ed Gillespie ran a really racist campaign, that many people have said that’s who he is. That’s who he was in this election and if folks are upset about people calling out racism, I think you should be more upset about the racism and the racist tactics than folks calling out racism.
This goony defense of an ad deeming Republicans as racist murderers was bought and paid for by CNN Tonight advertisers, including AT&T Business, FedEx, FractureMe.com, and Infiniti.
Here’s the relevant transcript from November 8's CNN Tonight with Don Lemon:
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon
November 8, 2017
12:34 a.m. EasternPAUL BEGALA: But it's against this most unlovely and undignified campaign the way that Ed Gillespie ran it and I know Ed and he should be ashamed of himself. He ran a racist, divisive set of ads
JASON MILLER: Paul, Paul, but no. President Trump —
AMANDA CARPENTER: Well, I think Ed Gillespie got the worst of both worlds.
BEGALA: — and he should be ashamed of himself.
CARPENTER: Well, yeah.
MILLER: Like the Latino Victory Fund ad?
SYMONE SANDERS: The Latino Victory Fund ad was not — are you calling that ad racist? Because what it did was call-out racism. Ed Gillespie is a —
MILLER: I’ll say that was a disgusting ad
BEGALA: He should be ashamed of himself.
SYMONE SANDERS: What's disgusting is Ed Gillespie stoking the worst parts of the American people. That’s what’s disgusting. There’s nothing disgusting about calling out racism.
MILLER: Wait, so, a Democratic ad where — getting a —
BEGALA: It wasn’t a Democratic ad. [INAUDIBLE]
MILLER: — where the — goes and drives some kids down.
SANDERS: Where the kids are — did you — first of all, let’s talk about the ad since he brought the ad up. That ad was — no.
MILLER: You’re going to say that’s —
SANDERS: The ad was, look, the ad was kids of color running and what they were running from was a truck —
MILLER: And they’re trying to say all Gillespie voters are racist.
SANDERS: — with a bumper sticker with a confederate flag on it and Ed Gillespie — nope. They were saying Ed Gillespie was running a really racist campaign and If you don't like that type of stuff, don’t vote for Ed Gillespie in Virginia.
LEMON: Can we — can we find this ad, producers? We’ll find the ad and then we’ll talk about it.
BEGALA: But it was not a Democratic ad. It ran one time.
LEMON: Okay, we’ll talk about it.
CARPENTER: Well, this is the downside of [INAUDIBLE] into the race.
LEMON: We'll be right back.
(....)
LEMON: We were talking about political ads run in this particular election. One of which was a Latino ad and explain to our viewers what this one is from.
BEGALA: This is a group called the Latino Victory Fund and it ran an ad. I think it ran once and the candidate, the Democratic candidate, disavowed it right away. He and I think it was an outrageous ad. It was totally unfair, and it came off right away but somehow that is the equivalent of Ed Gillespie putting his name and his image on race-baiting ads which he did day after day after day is not the same. That’s a complete unfair comparison.
LEMON: Let's — let’s watch this ad and then we’ll talk about it. Here it is.
[VICTORY FUND AD]
NARRATOR OF LATINO VICTORY FUND AD: Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by the American Dream?
SANDERS: So let me say I think that ad is, one, Latino Victory Fund I think Krystal Ball who is the president of the Latino Victory Fund put out a statement saying they said they knew that ad would ruffle feathers. There are lots of people in America, specifically in Virginia that felt directly attacked by a Ed Gillespie candidacy, the type of race he was running and while Paul may not agree with the ad, many other people I think it was also right, politically, for Ralph Northam to also disavow the ad. But the fact of the matter is Ed Gillespie ran a really racist campaign, that many people have said that’s who he is. That’s who he was in this election and if folks are upset about people calling out racism, I think you should be more upset about the racism and the racist tactics than folks calling out racism.
LEMON: This is an Ed Gillespie ad that people thought as racist. Here it is. MS-13 ad
[GILLESPIE AD]
LEMON: Racist or just fear-based?
BEGALA: It’s — look at the image of this. It’s exactly like a 21st century Willie Horton ad. Those people in that ad, by the way, that photograph was taken in El Salvador. They're not in Virginia. Virginia has the third lowest crime rate in America, okay? And for Ed Gillespie to come right out of Donald Trump’s playbook and say oh, scary Latinos are coming to your Commonwealth. It’s —
CARPENTER: But MS-13 is a problem.
MILLER: Tell that to the families who were slayed by MS-13
CARPENTER: Why is it wrong for Ed Gillespie to bring up the fact that Northam, at one time, did support sanctuary cities and everybody says, well, there aren’t sanctuary cities in Virginia.
BEGALA: There are none. They can’t have them, by the way.
CARPENTER: Yet but the governor’s been opposed to it. That helps. If a mayor starts perusing sanctuary city policies, they could get cut off from federal funding.
BEGALA: They don’t have the authority under state law.
CARPENTER: You have a president that threatens to withhold federal funding.
DAVID AXELROD: Seriously? Let me —
CARPENTER: Why is it racist to talk about the policies?
