Despite days of paying proper homage to the late John McCain as an American hero while pushing its line about President Trump as a boor, CNN displayed its hypocrisy Tuesday afternoon on CNN Newsroom as host Brooke Baldwin and liberal journalist Amy Chozick hailed the virtues of porn star Stormy Daniels in light of her profile by Chozick in Vogue.
The pair spent over five minutes dubbing Daniels as merely a “fun,” “working mom” who posed for Vogue “like you have never seen her” as she grapples with “the psychological and personal toll” of being President Trump’s “perfect adversary” but a “beacon of The Resistance.”
To see my colleague Tim Graham’s thorough takedown of Chozick’s puff piece, go here.
Baldwin dove right into the hero worship with her introduction:
Stormy Daniels, like you have never seen her. All decked out in high-end designer couture. Photographed by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz and gracing the pages of high fashions bible Vogue fashion magazine. This is — shall we say — a far cry from the film sets where she was once an adult film star or the strip clubs where she now dances.....Daniels is getting the royal Vogue treatment in a gown by a designer who refuses to dress the First Lady. The article is called “Stormy Daniels isn't backing down.”
Chozick explained that she chose to profile Stormy because “[w]e haven’t heard her own voice” enough so she “really wanted to get at kind of the psychological and personal toll that it has taken on her being one of the President's, you know, chief adversaries.”
The pair then giggled at an excerpt when Daniels joked about the length of time that sex with Trump allegedly lasted before Chozick gushed that Daniels’s sense of humor is “very dry” with a “sardonic wit and it was something she kept kind of kept relying on everytime the conversation got too heavy about this the weight that millions of Americans placed on her shoulders seeing her as this kind of beacon of The Resistance.”
Cry. Me. A. River.
Chozick then explained how the types of people that see Stormy at strip clubs and purchase merchandise are no longer “middle-aged, white men” but everyone from “hordes of women” to “Bernie Sanders shirts” and “gay couples who have never been a strip club before.”
Baldwin later professed to Chozick that “the color in your piece is extraordinary” and that a porn star has been “an effective foe of Trump” because she’s beyond humiliation and thus “a perfect adversary.”
The woman who wrote a similarly gooey book about Hillary Clinton uncorked more love for a porn star to Baldwin’s amusement (click “expand” for more):
She really is. I mean, I tried to dig into that a little bit. What makes her such a perfect adversary? And it’s partially that. She cannot be humiliated. I mean, she told that working in the adult business, there’s been harassment her whole business. She said I did not turn on Twitter and get called a whore for the first time. You know, she doesn’t have a carefully-crafted images. She doesn't have a political base to make happy. She sort of is who she is and I think that’s why a lot women identify with her is that there’s something very flawed and real that they see in her.
Both women argued that Daniels and not the Robert Mueller investigation could be what brings the President down (read: forces him out of office) before Baldwin concluded by asking Chozick what her “biggest takeaway” from meeting Stormy was.
Despite the fact that Daniels doesn’t have full-time custody of her child and makes money that most Americans could only dream of making, Chozick passed her off as just “working mom” with “a family to support” (click “expand” for more)
CHOZICK: I think just, you know, how fun she is. I think — I think people have a perception about porn stars and what they’re kind of sex-filled lives are like. I mean, she’s a working mom. I mean, talking about 15 minutes, some of her friends I talked to were like, yeah, she’s got a family to support. Is she cashing in when she can? Sure. But she’s also got crazy expenses. She’s had to hire bodyguards. She calls them her dragons and they go with her everywhere. And so, just kind of, how different it was from our perception of this, you know, glamorous or whatever you think about porn stars. She’s got her horses in Texas. A gun. She’s got a gun.
BALDWIN: She’s — she’s a Republican.
Here’s the relevant transcript from August 28's CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin:
CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin
August 28, 2018
3:28 p.m. EasternBROOKE BALDWIN: Stormy Daniels, like you have never seen her. All decked out in high-end designer couture. Photographed by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz and gracing the pages of high fashions bible Vogue fashion magazine. This is — shall we say — a far cry from the film sets where she was once an adult film star or the strip clubs where she now dances. It is a bit closer to the looks she dons for her media appearances outside courthouses where she is suing the president of the United States and one-time lawyer Michael Cohen over keeping quiet about an alleged affair. Daniels is getting the royal Vogue treatment in a gown by a designer who refuses to dress the First Lady. The article is called “Stormy Daniels isn't backing down” and with me now Amy Chozick, who wrote the Vogue piece. She is also the author of Chasing Hillary. So nice to have you on.
AMY CHOZICK: It’s good to be her. Thanks for having me.
BALDWIN: So just start at the beginning. Why did you want do interview her?
CHOZICK: Well, I was really intrigued by her and there’s been a lot written her, but after the 60 Minutes interview, she really hasn’t done any interviews. We’ve haven’t heard her own voice in this.
BALDWIN: Yeah.
CHOZICK: We’ve heard Michael Avenatti, her lawyer, defending her and talking about the case, of course, but I really wanted to get at kind of the psychological and personal toll that it has taken on her being one of the President's, you know, chief adversaries. What is that link? And so, we really kind of dove into that over a couple of conversations.
BALDWIN: So, you talk about, I have to quote this — this line in your piece because you set it up, comparing to her to, of course, what we saw on that 60 Minutes interview. All fancy and make up-ed up and everything and you write: “In person, [Stormy] is nothing like that stoic, on-message woman. She is blunt, foulmouthed, funny. I ask her for more details on her alleged 2006 affair with Trump. ‘How many details can you really give about two minutes?’ she says. Two minutes? I ask. ‘Maybe. I’m being generous.’” [BOTH LAUGHING]
CHOZICK: Yeah. She’s very dry. She has this sardonic wit and it was something she kept kind of kept relying on everytime the conversation got too heavy about this the weight that millions of Americans placed on her shoulders seeing her as this kind of beacon of the resistance.
BALDWIN: Which she says she didn't really —
CHOZICK: She didn’t ask to be —
BALDWIN: — mean to be at all.
CHOZICK: Exactly. Exactly. I mean, you know, she tells me that the demographic to come to the strip clubs and buy her adult films, you know, white men, middle aged, white men are just gone and now it’s these hordes of women.
BALDWIN: You were there at one of the — doing your homework at one of these strip clubs.
CHOZICK: Yes.
BALDWIN: Who’s there cheering her on?
CHOZICK Well, I went in Milwaukee, which is kind of like the heart of Trump county and it was like the people lining up, I saw Bernie Sanders shirts, I saw gay couples who have never been a strip club before. I talked to women. I talked to a secretary who couldn’t wait to get a selfie.
BALDWIN: Who are going to watch her strip.
CHOZICK: Yes.
BALDWIN: To chee — with, like, t-shirts that say “Team Stormy.”
CHOZICK: Yeah. Stormy told me the strangest thing about this whole experience is that she has sold hardly nude photos since it started cause she sells merchandise after the show. So she sold “Team Stormy” t-shirts and she’s sold, you know, mugs and things like that to these, you know, people who see her as this person taking on the President.
BALDWIN: So the color in your piece is extraordinary, but you know, you point out what makes her an effective foe of Trump is that she’s sort of unhumiliatable — you can’t humiliate.
CHOZICK: Yeah.
BALDWIN: She is like, you want to — you want to expose the sex tape? Here you go. $29.95.
CHOZICK: All of them.
BALDWIN: Why is she — she’s sort of a perfect adversary.
CHOZICK: She really is. I mean, I tried to dig into that a little bit. What makes her such a perfect adversary? And it’s partially that. She cannot be humiliated. I mean, she told that working in the adult business, there’s been harassment her whole business. She said I did not turn on Twitter and get called a whore for the first time. You know, she doesn’t have a carefully-crafted images. She doesn't have a political base to make happy. She sort of is who she is and I think that’s why a lot women identify with her is that there’s something very flawed and real that they see in her.
BALDWIN: Then you have the camp that says, “okay, your 15 minutes of fame, lady, are way, way up.” But you have the Russia investigation over here. You have Michael Cohen and what happened in that federal courthouse, you know, and campaign finance violations and pleading to myriad felonies and she’s, you know, taking on this President and I’m wondering, through people you talk to, might it be this porn star, not this, but this porn star that takes the President down?
CHOZICK: Oh, absolutely. I mean, the kind of details of her case don’t seem that big. Who signed the non-disclosure? She’s suing for defamation, but this could be a catalyst of historic proportions. I mean, as we already saw, it led to Michael Cohen pleading guilty to campaign violations. I mean, I talked to a lot of legal experts who said this could be the string that unravels the whole thing.
BALDWIN: Your biggest takeaway after sitting down with her?
CHOZICK: I think just, you know, how fun she is. I think — I think people have a perception about porn stars and what they’re kind of sex-filled lives are like. I mean, she’s a working mom. I mean, talking about 15 minutes, some of her friends I talked to were like, yeah, she’s got a family to support. Is she cashing in when she can? Sure. But she’s also got crazy expenses. She’s had to hire bodyguards. She calls them her dragons and they go with her everywhere. And so, just kind of, how different it was from our perception of this, you know, glamorous or whatever you think about porn stars. She’s got her horses in Texas. A gun. She’s got a gun.
BALDWIN: She’s — she’s a Republican. She says I never in a million years imagined I’d be in this position. Amy Chozick, thank you so much and you can read her entire piece. Go to vogue.com for that. Thank you.
CHOZICK: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Thank you.
