Illustrating why they’re the opposition party and are focused on pleasing the Adam Schiffs of the world by helping to overthrow the Trump administration, Thursday’s CNN Right Now was in an apoplectic state following comments from “lying” Vice President Mike Pence defending President Donald Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
CNN’s snarkiness began before any bit of analysis host Brianna Keilar (who interjected part way through Pence’s remarks to reset the scene), chief political correspondent, and ridiculous figure Chris Cillizza ever spoke. This was thanks to two CNN split-screens entitled “Facts First” as Pence spoke to defend Hunter Biden’s business dealings as perfectly legal and worthwhile.
The same network ridiculing the business careers of the First Family continued their crusade to defend this case of liberal nepotism. Keilar declared Pence’s press availability in Arizona to have been “a very pivotal, interesting moment” in the impeachment probe as Pence has shown that he’s “all in with President Trump.”
Keilar then continued ostracizing these questions about the Biden as akin to a conspiracy theory and thus unacceptable rhetoric (click “expand”):
KEILAR: He said the American people have the right to know whether the Vice President or his family profited off of his position. Okay, well, look, we can tell you because we have fact-checked this extensively as have many other outlets and what is clear here and what is clear here is what the President is alleging that — the Vice President Joe Biden was doing something for the behest of his son hunter Biden does not bear out, right? I want to talk about this now. This key moment with Chris Cillizza and Dana Bash who are here with me and you know, it’s — this is one of those things where I think it perfectly encapsulates what the Trump administration is dealing with because a couple other questions Pence got were about Hispanic voters in Arizona, right? Trump won Arizona, he wants to hang on to it. He’s done a lot to offend Hispanic voters, that's a key constituency here in Arizona but trying to hang on to it and Pence is there as this emissary to help him do that but that's not what Pence is really talking about. He’s there in what appears to be in discomfort as I look at him having watched him over the years.
BASH: I think he would probably rather —
KEILAR: That’s right.
BASH: — be having a root canal.
Bash replied by following the far-left strategy in the last 24 hours to also implicate Pence in hopes of removing him too from office, wondering what he knew about the Zelensky call (which both Cillizza and Keilar would do moments later with the latter almost gloating about Pence having to face impeachment questions while he had hoped to promote Hispanic Heritage Month and elected Republicans in Arizona).
Cillizza complained that Pence, like Trump, took impeachment questions from reporters and turned it around to talking about the Biden even though “everything” besides the fact that Hunter was “on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company....is false.”
No word on whether he finds Hunter’s lucrative salary or his zero experience on energy and Ukraine to be “false.”
Continuing the liberal media-wide collusion to bury Pence, Keilar hyped without evidence to her panel’s approval that “we all know for having covered Pence for so long, that Pence is lying, and that he knows that he is” and that he doesn’t “in his heart of hearts or even, you know, just superficially believes what the President was saying was appropriate.”
Before closing out the show, Bash and Cillizza fire shots across the bow at Republicans in purple states and especially Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ) in a wink and nod to impeachment (click “expand”):
BASH: One other quick thing. To the Vice President's right, so screen left, was Senator Martha McSally, who is one of the Republicans on the ballot in a purple state in 2020 who has been not saying very much at all. You know, the sound of Republican silence. She's among the most important to watch there, because, you know, she's the kind of senator who depending how this goes for her own liability given her background in the military could, you never know.
CILLIZZA: And lost a race, by the way, that clearly in 2018 —
KEILAR: That’s right.
CILLIZZA: — a referendum, at least, on Trump.
KEILAR: Alright, we got wrap this up. Just, thank you guys so much. Dana Bash, Chris Cillizza. But basically you just saw Vice President Pence saying there was no quid pro quo, there was no pressure, and that the President had been raising issuing appropriate. All of those things false.
>>Help fight back against the media's impeachment crusade.<<
To see the relevant transcript from October 3's CNN Right Now, click “expand.”
CNN Right Now
October 3, 2019
1:42 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Pence Speaks on Meeting with Ukraine’s Zelensky]
VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: The simple truth is that those are the same issues the President raised with President Zelensky in their call. The President spoke about lack of European support, he spoke about corruption, and he tasked me to go and meet with the President of Ukraine and carry our concerns about those issues and anyone that looks at the President's transcript will see that the President was raising issues that were appropriate, that were genuine interest to the American people and as more facts come out of this, as people take time to read the transcript of the President's call and reflect on these facts, I think they'll come to realize this is more of the same of what we've seen from Democrats for the last two and a half years. They literally spent two and a half years pushing — pushing an impeachment of this administration, this President, on a — on a theory of Russian collusion and obstruction and when that didn't pan out, they — they briefly tried to talk about impeaching Justice Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court and over the last ten days, we're back to talking impeachment. I think — I think the people of America are saying enough is enough. I mean, people of this country want us to focus on issues that matter most to them. These endless investigations should end in Washington, D.C., and Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats ought to be focusing on issues of security, of prosperity, infrastructure, the USMCA, lowering drug prices. Whatever they want to fight about in Washington, D.C., I promise you President Trump and I will keep fighting for the issues that matter to the American people.
(....)
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Trump Defends Trump Call Featured in Whistleblower Complaint]
BRIANA KEILAR: Alright, this is a moment that kind of perfectly encapsulates what the Trump administration is dealing with here, right? Mike Pence, the Vice President, is in Scottsdale, Arizona. He's there during Hispanic Heritage Month. Clearly this is an area that President Trump would like to expand for his voters coming into this election, and he's been asked these questions, Pence has, about this call that President Trump had with the Ukranian president. Let's — let’s actually listen back in.
PENCE: Let me say that I'm Vice President of the United States and I was elected to this job along with President Trump for many reasons. One was to re — excuse — we were elected for many reasons. One was rebuild our military, one was to revive our economy, another was to see conservatives appointed to our courts. Another was to secure our borders, but one of the main reasons we were elected in Washington, D.C. was to drain the swamp and I think the American people have a right to know if the Vice President of the United States or his family profited from his position as Vice President during the last administration, that's about looking backwards and — and — and understanding what really happened. I mean, the fact that my predecessor had a son who was paid $50,000 a month to be on a Ukranian board at the time that Vice President Biden was leading the Obama administration's efforts in Ukraine, I think, is worth looking into and the President made it very clear that he believes — he believes our other nations around the world should look into it as well. The simple fact is that, you know, when you hold the second highest office in the land, it comes with unique responsibilities. Not just to be above impropriety but to be above the appearance and impropriety and clearly, in this case, that are legitimate questions that ought to be asked and we're going to continue to ask the questions of whether or not the Vice President or his family profited from his position. I mean, you look at the video of Vice President Biden and you can see there is clearly quid pro quo. He said if a prosecutor was not fired, who, among other things, was investigating the company his son sat on the board of, that he was going to withhold a billion dollars. Contrast that with the President's phone call with President Zelensky. There was no quid pro quo, there was no pressure. And I think it’s why most Americans want to get answers about what was going on and to have Ukraine particularly, as the President said, to get to the bottom of it. I think that's what the American people would expect and anticipate, but this administration is going to continue to advance the policies and the agenda we were elected to advance. That includes draining the swamp and that includes demanding that our allies acted in this government in an upright way as well.
(....)
KEILAR: Alright. Vice President Mike Pence there in Arizona for — I mean, this is — this was a very pivotal, interesting moment in all of this. He is all in with President Trump on what the President has been saying and as the President admitted, that he asked the Ukranian President for dirt on his political opponent, Joe Biden. Also asking China or saying China should investigate. Pence is saying that the President on that phone call raised issues that were appropriate. So even as Pence's staff has tried to distance the Vice President, give him a little bit of political cover, the reality for the Vice President is that he is linked to the President and he is going all in there. He said the American people have the right to know whether the Vice President or his family profited off of his position.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Pence Repeats Trump’s Debunked Biden Conspiracies]
Okay, well, look, we can tell you because we have fact-checked this extensively as have many other outlets and what is clear here and what is clear here is what the President is alleging that — the Vice President Joe Biden was doing something for the behest of his son hunter Biden does not bear out, right? I want to talk about this now. This key moment with Chris Cillizza and Dana Bash who are here with me and you know, it’s — this is one of those things where I think it perfectly encapsulates what the Trump administration is dealing with because a couple other questions Pence got were about Hispanic voters in Arizona, right? Trump won Arizona, he wants to hang on to it. He’s done a lot to offend Hispanic voters, that's a key constituency here in Arizona but trying to hang on to it and Pence is there as this emissary to help him do that but that's not what Pence is really talking about. He’s there in what appears to be in discomfort as I look at him having watched him over the years.
DANA BASH: I think he would probably rather —
KEILAR: That’s right.
BASH: — be having a root canal.
KEILAR: That’s about what it looked like.
BASH: Yeah and I was running back up here to be with you and maybe you can answer this question. My question for him beyond the what did you think of it is did you know? When you met with President Zelensky did you carry the same message that you heard, that we've heard the President make with the Ukraine President? He wasn't asked that question, right?
CHRIS CILLIZZA: He was not — as far as I can tell —
BASH: Cause that’s a key question — that's a key question. One thing to say, there's there there.
CILLIZZA: He — he — look into Joe Biden, right?
BASH: It’s another question to ask, were you complicit in it? Did you carry out these orders?
CILLIZZA: So, seems to me, he did — I was listening honestly in the makeup room as I was coming in here. What it seems, to me, that what he did is what Trump is trying to do, which is take all questions related to Ukraine and pivot to Biden and the key here to your point, Brianna, yes, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son was on the board of a Ukrainian national gas company. That is true. Everything else that Donald Trump has said about, or alleged, is — is false.
KEILAR: But, but Pence —
CILLIZZA: There's no connection of any sort in corruption. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
KEILAR: — Pence is, and I know, and you know, and we all know for having covered Pence for so long, that Pence is lying, and that he knows that he is, because he says that the President was raising issues that were appropriate.
CILLIZZA: Yeah. He’s not. Right.
KEILAR: I do not believe that Mike Pence believes the President, in his heart of hearts or even, you know, just superficially believes what the President was saying was appropriate.
BASH: It’s hard to imagine a Governor Pence, a House Republican Pence, under any other circumstances, any other President, seeing this exact conversation would say those things that it's appropriate, but this is the, this is the cross that he bears. This is what he decided he was going to jump in on when he said Donald Trump, I will be your running mate.
CILLIZZA: Yep.
BASH: He has decided he's going to be loyal. That he, just like Lindsey Graham, he has decided the Republican Party he's been a part of, his political life is now the party of Donald Trump, and he is on that train and he's not getting off.
CILLIZZA: Yeah. Mike Pence wants more than anything else in the world to be president. That's not unique to him. Lots of people were Vice President want to be president with notable exceptions, Dick Cheney, though you could make arguments about that, but he wants to be president. To Dana's point, when he said, you know what? I'm signing on with this guy knowing that, remember, at the time he says, yes, even then, Donald Trump is obviously the nominee, even then there are a lot of voices, Paul Ryan, prominent voices, in the Republican Party who are like, do we really want to be associated with this guy? He takes that gamble. It pays off for him and he now understands that there will not be a thing that I can imagine where Mike Pence says you know what? I'm gonna — I’m going to have to disagree with the President on that. I just — I cannot —
KEILAR: Not publicly.
CILLIZZA: — not publicly, because he views his fate politically as so wedded. He's not wrong. So wedded to Donald Trump that there will never be even a scintilla of space between the two of them publicly.
KEILAR: And that ship set sail so long ago.
BASH: It did.
CILLIZZA: It did.
KEILAR: So this, I mean — just the backdrop of what's happening here, Dana, is Vice President Pence is in Arizona and he’s taking these questions, I don't know the answer to this, whether this was previously scheduled. Just a press avail that he was going to be doing. It seemed like it was because there are questions on the topic of Hispanic voters, Hispanic Heritage Month, which he was referencing and clearly trying to draw attention to, but he is there as this Washington Post story has come out about the sort of whether or not, you know, how informed was he, right? This sort of question that's out there, how informed was he considering his national security adviser was on the call? Wouldn't he be informed? Maybe he wasn’t?
BASH: And that’s what I meant — that’s what I meant by, was that question posed to him? Because it's not just, do you support it or do you not? It's, you had a full briefing book when you went to meet with the Ukrainian president, Sept — in the beginning of September. So a little more than a month ago.
KEILAR: And the call happened in July.
BASH: And the call, we are told, and the call — the summary that we have all seen was in there. Plus, his own national security adviser, Pence's, was on that call. So did he read that? Was he briefed on it? Did he know and did he carry that message? Did he also ask the Ukrainian leader whether it was, you know, explicit or implicit for dirt on the former vice president?
KEILAR: He’s — he was raising issues of corruption and these appropriate issues that President Trump —
BASH: The question is whether the Ukrainian leader took that as code for Biden's son.
CILLIZZA: Yeah and there’s —
KEILAR: — that’s right because especially with Giuliani paving the way ahead of time —
CILLIZZA: — and there’s a big difference, yeah.
KEILAR: — as he clearly did in the call with Trump, take that idea with Trump being the Biden connection.
CILLIZZA: — there’s a big difference between, “hey, I know you are committed to this and we are committed to helping you deal with corruption that has been going on in your government, in your society.” And then saying, “also, speaking of corruption, funny that this came up, Joe Biden has done some things over there I want you to look into.” I think to Dana's point, the question, is let’s say Mike Pence only talked about corruption broadly. That kind of, the latter idea, the former idea, not the latter. Even so, the context of the conversation between Donald Trump and Zelensky in July, Zelensky's thinking, “Corruption, Biden, Giuliani, Bill Barr, Crowdstrike, make Americans happy, because of military aid and because of the necessary relationship there.” So, again, a lot of this is, you don't have to say quid pro quo. When you're the United States and you are meeting with the Ukrainians, you don't have to say I want X for Y because it's implicit.
KEILAR: It was so clear.
BASH: One other quick thing. To the Vice President's right, so screen left, was Senator Martha McSally, who is one of the Republicans on the ballot in a purple state in 2020 who has been not saying very much at all. You know, the sound of Republican silence. She's among the most important to watch there, because, you know, she's the kind of senator who depending how this goes for her own liability given her background in the military could, you never know.
CILLIZZA: And lost a race, by the way, that clearly in 2018 —
KEILAR: That’s right.
CILLIZZA: — a referendum, at least, on Trump.
KEILAR: Alright, we got wrap this up. Just, thank you guys so much. Dana Bash, Chris Cillizza. But basically you just saw Vice President Pence saying there was no quid pro quo, there was no pressure, and that the President had been raising issuing appropriate. All of those things false.
