The broadcast and cable networks were fairly lackluster on Tuesday night and early Wednesday during their Super Tuesday coverage, in large part due to former Vice President Joe Biden’s upsets over socialist Bernie Sanders. But at 3:31 a.m. Eastern, CNN spent almost eight minutes bashing Democratic primary voters as sexist heathens for not supporting Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
CNN Tonight host Don Lemon set the table, fretting that there were all these “women and their influence or really sort of the lack of influence in this election” despite them being “very strong, very powerful, [and] very smart.”
Throwing in Hillary Clinton winning the 2016 popular vote, Lemon continued to bemoan: “You had this very diverse Democratic Party and then you have the women, you have all the white guys who have the delegates. What's going on here?”
The Daily Beast’s Jackie Kucinich didn’t play the gender card with Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) pointing to her lack of money and success outside of debates, but on Warren, Kucinich upped the spin (click “expand”):
KUCINICH: Now, Elizabeth Warren — it's fascinating, because she had the ground game that everybody envied in Iowa, in New Hampshire, in several of these states. She had been working on this forever and if you look at the spending in some of the states.
LEMON: She still has money now. She still has money.
KUCINICH: She still has money, but she also has a high burn rate. So, and she's already planning to go to places like Michigan, like Arizona, she — and she already has those on the calendar. We know that it doesn't really matter, but in theory she's planning on going forward. If just the fact that this ground game did not turn out votes for her, did not get people to the polls for Elizabeth Warren is really — there's really a lot of digging as to why that didn't happen, whether it's sexism, whether it's the fact someone did just changed their mind. I heard women when I was in Iowa tell me we're Warren fans, we’re worried that people — they liked Warren, they heard her speak. They went to the polls and then they were worried that a woman couldn't beat Donald Trump.
Perhaps she’s just a bad candidate with competitor (Sanders) representing a near identical brand of politics who ran in 2016. But alas, CNN blamed it on the supposedly woke side of the aisle being sexist.
Liberal political commentator Karen Finney doubled down, chalking it up to Americans “still” being “very uncomfortable with women in power, and that's part of why women have to over credential again and again” on “electability” with both 2016 (ignoring Hillary Clinton’s many scandals) and 2020 with Kamala Harris, Klobuchar, and Warren not in the top two.
Finney invoked Harris’s showdown with Biden and then Bloomberg vs. Warren as examples of when a man might have been able to capitalize, but because they’re women, their “likability” took hits.
Fellow lefty and former Clinton aide Patti Solis Doyle replied that “this whole dynamic really upsets me...that we're even still talking about, well, she can't go too far, she can't hit too hard” despite the success of Democratic women joining Congress after the 2018 election.
“[I]t really upsets me that someone like Elizabeth Warren who was stellar on the debate stage, had a great organization, smart, tough, had resources, somehow just seemed to — has been like shoved aside and we don't know why,” she continued.
Finney interjected to falsely claim that Bloomberg wasn’t hammered for alleged statements he’s made to women at his company but Klobuchar was “talked about whether or not [she] was nice to her staff.”
Washington Post editor David Swerdlick went last and didn’t sound like a newspaper editor should but instead, as usual, like a liberal hack, insisting that “I don’t think sexism explains the whole thing” but then spent most of his time blaming sexism on Warren’s flailing campaign (click “expand”):
SWERDLICK: I think one of the reasons that the two front runners are the front runners is because they've both run for president before, but Warren was hammered on her Medicare for All plan and her tax plans in a way that none of the men were entire last year. To me, that was a sexist double standard.
LEMON: But I have to get —
FINNEY: I agree.
LEMON: — the reason I started this whole conversation is because the success of all this has to do with Democratic women this party is driven by mostly women of color and suburban women, right, college educated women, many of them white who hate Donald Trump and — right?
FINNEY: Some of them who voted for him that first time, but —
LEMON: And who hate the disparities that are happening in this country. That is really the heart and soul of the Democratic Party, and so that's why I started this conversation —
FINNEY: Yeah. Can we say thank you?
LEMON: — and we all really — the country doesn't do that well.
To see the relevant transcript from CNN on March 4, click “expand.”
CNN’s America’s Choice 2020: Super Tuesday
March 4, 2020
3:31 a.m. Eastern
DON LEMON: So here we go let's talk about something that I find very interesting, though. The women and their influence or really sort of the lack of influence in this election. I want to talk about the delegate count in this election. Elizabeth Warren not even winning her own home state of Massachusetts. She obviously campaigned there, but Joe Biden winning that state. It — it’s very interesting to me. He didn't even campaign there, he didn't really spend lots of money there, but let's look at the delegate count there. So the delegate count at least in this race — put the delegate count up for me if you will. So, in the delegates to date, you have Amy Klobuchar who has seven delegates, right? You have Elizabeth Warren who has 20 delegates and you have Tulsi Gabbard who has one delegate and then you have Bernie Sanders who has 245, Joe Biden 321, Pete Buttigieg 26, and then you have Mayor Michael Bloomberg who has four delegates. I want to bring it now to the women who are here to talk about that. You have these women, these very strong, very powerful, very smart women in this race. You had Hillary Clinton, who is defeated despite winning the popular vote. You have Elizabeth Warren who didn't do well, Amy Klobuchar who has dropped out of this race. You had this very diverse Democratic Party and then you have the women, you have all the white guys who have the delegates. What's going on here?
JACKIE KUCINICH: You know, Klobuchar had just a really small amount of time to really use that debate an amazing debate she had where everyone kind of took notice and allowed her to, you know, plow through and finish third in New Hampshire, and then she really wasn't able to make the most of it. She really wasn't able to catch fire and that really isn't her fault. I mean, she didn't have the money to spend in some of these states. Now, Elizabeth Warren — it's fascinating, because she had the ground game that everybody envied in Iowa, in New Hampshire, in several of these states. She had been working on this forever and if you look at the spending in some of the states.
LEMON: She still has money now. She still has money.
KUCINICH: She still has money, but she also has a high burn rate. So, and she's already planning to go to places like Michigan, like Arizona, she — and she already has those on the calendar. We know that it doesn't really matter, but in theory she's planning on going forward. If just the fact that this ground game did not turn out votes for her, did not get people to the polls for Elizabeth Warren is really — there's really a lot of digging as to why that didn't happen, whether it's sexism, whether it's the fact someone did just changed their mind. I heard women when I was in Iowa tell me we're Warren fans, we’re worried that people — they liked Warren, they heard her speak. They went to the polls and then they were worried that a woman couldn't beat Donald Trump.
LEMON: But you're reading my mind. I'm wanting — does it say something about the candidate or about the electorate?
KAREN FINNEY: It's a little bit of both. So much of the research shows, this is something that, you know, Patty dealt with in the White House with Hillary in 2008, seen it with women candidates again and again and again. When it comes to executive office, our country is still very uncomfortable with women in power, and that's part of why women have to over credential again and again. So in 16, we said, she would be — Hillary Clinton would have been the most qualified, right? You've heard — and you also have heard both Klobuchar and Warren and certainly Kamala when she was still talking about their electability and remember that for women what goes into electability is do I think she — I like her? We don't care if we like male candidates or not. Men come into a race with the expectation that they're qualified. Women have to prove themselves, so, all of that goes into how voters are analyzing the candidate, and certainly we also know that women — I think this is what we saw with Kamala, when you — when a woman takes a hit at — particularly at a male candidate she takes a hit in her likability and I think with Kamala part of what happened when she didn't have enough time to get it back up. So, for all of these women, I think all —
LEMON: You meant between her and Joe Biden.
FINNEY: — and Joe Biden. Sorry, yes. In that first debate I think people were, you know, initially people liked it and then they sort of —
LEMON: The same thing happened with Elizabeth Warren and Mike Bloomberg.
FINNEY: — yes, that's right.
LEMON: The first time they were like, okay, it's great, and the second time I think they were it's too much.
FINNEY: And it's always that fine line for women, right. It was almost, you know, I was talking about this that the first part of her hit on Mike Bloomberg at that second debate was solid. She kind of went the next part of it to talk about the pregnancy discrimination and from what I, you know, in the room —
LEMON: Booed.
FINNEY: — and audibly shocked and booed.
LEMON: I got to tell you when I got back to New York and I got into the car at the airport the first thing the driver said was — Latino driver, he said you've got to tell Elizabeth Warren, because I did the town hall with — you got to tell Elizabeth Warren to back off of Mike Bloomberg. Too much it seems personal like she has a vendetta.
AMANDA CARPENTER: Well, yeah, she does. She doesn't like billionaires. That's what made it so enjoyable to watch. Because I don't know actually she's coming from —
FINNEY: But he played a perfect foil for her.
CARPENTER: — yeah, like she was made for that.
LEMON: But also, I have to tell you then and the women I spoke to said that they thought that NDA — they knew and they worked in corporate America that NDA's are standard part of corporate America, especially with severance packages and that they knew that and many of them knew that if you've got a great severance package, you don't want people knowing how much money you have — and they that knew most of it have not — didn't have to do with, you know, allegations of sexual harassment or whatever. There are some but those are few and far between. A lot of it — most of them had to do with severance packages and they thought it was just way too much. But anyway, go on.
PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: But I have to say this whole dynamic really upsets me. The fact that we're even still talking about, well, she can't go too far, she can't hit too hard. You know, in 2018 more women than ever before in our history ran for public office. More women than ever won public office. Women are going to be pivotal in this election. We started this presidential election with six women running, more than ever before in an election cycle. We're down to two, and it really upsets me that someone like Elizabeth Warren who was stellar on the debate stage, had a great organization, smart, tough, had resources, somehow just seemed to — has been like shoved aside and we don't know why.
FINNEY: But we also saw it in the coverage, I mean —
SOLIS DOYLE: Right.
FINNEY: — why are we talking about whether or not Amy Klobuchar was nice to her staff? Do you think Michael Bloomberg —
DOYLE: Okay, don’t even get started on that one.
FINNEY: Okay, but that — but — this is what I'm talking about in terms of likability.
LEMON: Yes, but Michael Bloomberg got hit — Michael Bloomberg do get hit about being nice to his staff. That was part of the whole bit from —
FINNEY: Ah, no, that was like oh,
CARPENTER: He was hit hard coming to the debate, though.
FINNEY: I like that dress on you, girl. That's not the same thing. To Patty's point, I think it's really important we acknowledge this. They won for congressional seats.
LEMON: Yeah.
FINNEY: Most voters believe that, you know, women tend to be — we are collaborative leaders. We are good at that. So sending us to Congress to help clean up the mess, that's a smart thing. It's executive leadership that becomes a problem.
LEMON: I want to get to something else that's very important. I want you to jump in, but I want to get something that is really important. Go on.
DAVID SWERDLICK: No, I was just going to say I'm an honorary woman on this panel. But let me just jump in really quick. I don't think sexism explains the whole thing.
CARPENTER: Yeah.
SWERDLICK: I think one of the reasons that the two front runners are the front runners is because they've both run for president before, but —
LEMON: Yeah.
SWERDLICK: Senator Warren was hammered on her Medicare for All plan —
FINNEY: Yes.
DOYLE: Yeah.
SWERDLICK: — and her tax plans in a way that none of the men were —
FINNEY: That's exactly right.
SWERDLICK: — the entire last year. To me, that was a sexist double standard.
LEMON: But I have to get —
FINNEY: I agree.
LEMON: — the reason I started this whole conversation is because the success of all this has to do with Democratic women this party is driven by mostly women of color and suburban women, right, college educated women, many of them white who hate Donald Trump and — right?
FINNEY: Some of them who voted for him that first time, but —
LEMON: And who hate the disparities that are happening in this country. That is really the heart and soul of the Democratic Party, and so that's why I started this conversation —
FINNEY: Yeah. Can we say thank you?
LEMON: — and we all really — the country doesn't do that well.
