Pulling away from the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing to spend two segments hyperventilating over Bob Woodward’s upcoming book on the Trump White House, CNN Newsroom afternoon host Brooke Baldwin gave CNN contributor and anti-Trumper John Dean the floor to slam Kavanaugh.
In addition, Baldwin misled viewers by not only just footnoting that Dean will testify later this week at Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, but did not mention how he would be doing it as a witness on behalf of Senate Democrats to thwart Kavanaugh’s chances of reaching the Supreme Court.
Baldwin interjected at the 2:45 p.m. Eastern mark to leave “the contentious hearing” because Kavanaugh is “just half of a massive news day” with “explosive new details about the President and his White House in a new book by Bob Woodward.”
She then teed up Dean by singing his praises and failing to immediately come clean with viewers about Dean’s partisan ties to the hearing:
I’ve had the pleasure you have sitting next to John Dean listening your sort of running commentary through some of that. Even just jogging back to Senator Blumenthal and then the chairman of the committee chuck Grassley back and forth, because he obviously had made a motion to adjourn as had several other Senators. What do you make of this?
Dean replied that “[i]t’s a little bit of pandemonium, but there's also clearly an effort to get to the core problem the Democrats face is the lack of documentation and a thorough vetting of this candidate and I think they're right to push for this.”
“This is being jammed through, trying to get it through before the election. President – no one can be sure what's going to happen in November. They think they have the votes now. They’re not so sure they will have them after November. So they're pushing,” he added.
Baldwin noted that Democrats “had been hoping to have — what was it — some 100,000 documents had been — I know they wanted many more than and then some 42,000 had just been delivered to them” and then agreed that the same Senators who have already said they wouldn’t vote for Kavanaugh “didn’t have enough time at all to review them.”
It was only then going to a commercial break that Baldwin snuck in the fact that Dean’s “testifying as a witness Friday.” But to reemphasize this point, Baldwin left out the detail of Dean appearing to aide Democrats and try to sink Kavanaugh.
After throwing in his virulent disdain for all things involving the Trump administration, he’s not exactly an expert who’s calling things as they see it.
To see the relevant transcript from September 4's CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, click “expand.”
CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin
September 4, 2018
2:45 p.m. EasternBROOKE BALDWIN: You're watching CNN, I'm Brooke Baldwin, you have been listening to the contentious confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. He is just half of a massive news day. Also happening explosive new details about the President and his White House in a new book by Bob Woodward. We have the scoop on that. We’ll get to that in just a moment, but first let's talk about what we've been listening to for the last little bit. I’ve had the pleasure you have sitting next to John Dean listening your sort of running commentary through some of that. Even just jogging back to Senator Blumenthal and then the chairman of the committee chuck Grassley back and forth, because he obviously had made a motion to adjourn as had several other Senators. What do you make of this?
JOHN DEAN: It's a little bit of pandemonium.
BALDWIN: Yeah.
DEAN: But there's also clearly an effort to get to the core problem the Democrats face is the lack of documentation and a thorough vetting of this candidate and I think they're right to push for this. This is being jammed through, trying to get it through before the election. President – no one can be sure what's going to happen in November. They think they have the votes now. They’re not so sure they will have them after November. So they're pushing.
BALDWIN: They had been hoping to have — what was it — some 100,000 documents had been — I know they wanted many more than and then some 42,000 had just been delivered to them from his time at the Bush 43 White House and they obviously didn't have enough time at all to review them. I know you're testifying as a witness Friday.
DEAN: Friday.
BALDWIN: Friday.
DEAN: Maybe.
BALDWIN: Depending on how this goes.
DEAN: Exactly.
BALDWIN: And the tic-toc of the whole thing.
