An hour before Tuesday’s CBS Mornings engaged in an voter suppression effort to imply support for Republicans meant a vote for violent extremists, the liberal morning show tried to argue Republicans are what ails America and, until they shape up, our polarization will reek havoc.
Standing in the way was CBS News contributor and former Trump acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who noted our elected leaders are a reflection of voters and, much to their chagrin, Democrats have their own reputation as election deniers.
The show used the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband Paul as proof of how one side of the aisle poses a unique threat to America’s prosperity. CBS News contributor and failed Kamala Harris official Ashley Etienne said ridding our country of dangerous divisiveness “is an issue that we're going to have to grapple with as a nation.” Oh, the irony of someone who worked for the Biden administration.
Co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King posed that concern to Mulvaney, calling that divisiveness “very concerning.”
Mulvaney agreed with Etienne that overcoming polarization will require everyone and that no one person “[got] us into this problem” and it’ll be the same for “get[ting] us out.”
He added that “Washington reflects the nation,” but King didn’t want to hear that and blamed the tens of millions of people who don’t vote the way she does: “But when it comes to the election deniers, though, most — that primarily is the Republican Party and that, I think, has led to many problems.”
Mulvaney then dropped a MOAB on their heads as not only did he as a Republican state January 5 was “awful, terrible” and not worth defending, but he said “Democrats have denied election results just as much Republicans if you take January 6th out of the equation.”
Chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes was apoplectic and, with King interjecting with some yeses, she twisted Mulvaney’s words:
That's just factually not true. There are hundreds of Republican candidates on the ballot tonight who have denied the outcome of the last election. There's nothing like that on the Democrat side.
Mulvaney didn’t back down and noted “Stacey Abrams hasn't admitted she lost the last time she ran in Georgia.”
Much to Cordes’s chagrin, Mulvaney was correct. In fact, House Democrats have objected to and denied the results of all three of the past Republican presidential victories in 2000, 2004, and 2016.
For example, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) falsely claimed the 2000 election was illegitimate and two of the top Democrats on the House Select Committee on January 6 in Mississippi’s Bennie Thompson and Maryland’s Jamie Raskin did the same legitimacy of the 2004 and 2016 elections, respectively.
Back to the present, Mulvaney called out this lunacy that only Republicans are divisive: “Why can't we all agree that everybody's a little bit at risk — a little bit at fault and we try and fix it as opposed to everybody saying, well, it's got to be a Republican fault and until they change, the country's not going to be fixed.”
Co-host Nate Burleson still wasn’t having it:
You said politicians, they can't save us. But they sure can divide us. And we hope that politicians reflect this country, but it seems like instead of a reflection, it's an injection of divisiveness. So, why don't you believe that politicians are at the — the crux of why we are so divided — why it is us versus them during this time of year?
Mulvaney didn’t budge: “There's no magic sort of black, dark hand of — invisible hand of Washington, D.C., looking to the extremes in both parties and saying, send me Marjorie Taylor Greene and send me AOC.”
Tuesday’s hissy fit when a conservative presented facts was made possible thanks to advertisers such as Google and Jergens. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant CBS transcript from November 8, click “expand.”
CBS Mornings
November 8, 2022
7:32 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: America Decides Campaign ‘22; Voters Head to the Polls; CBS News Political Team Tackles What’s at Stake in Midterm Elections]
ASHLEY EITENNE: I think the one thing we have to — if we could take a step back, you know, this Congress opened up with a deadly attack on the Capitol and threats to hang the Vice President of the United States. It was bookended by an attack on the speaker in her house, her husband, in her house.
GAYLE KING: Mmhmm.
ETIENNE: No matter how the elections turn out today, this is an issue that we're going to have to grapple with as a nation. We're going to have to figure out how do we get back to a “we,” not an us versus them, which perpetuates this violence.
KING: Yes.
NATE BURLESON: Mmmm.
ETIENNE: That was my top takeaway from it. My heart goes out to the speaker. I know how much she loves her husband and how much she loves this country, so I was heartbroken by it. But, as a nation, we've got to figure out, we as American people, it won't be an elected official that's going to save us here. We’re going to have to say enough is enough.
KING: Yeah and how do — how do you speak to that, Mick, could you? About the us versus we. Because it is very concerning.
MICK MULVANEY: It is and I think Ashley's right. It's not going to be a politician that saves us for lack of a better word. One politician didn't get us into this problem, one politician is not going to get us out. People ask me, how do you fix Washington? I’m like, Washington doesn't really lead. Washington reflects the nation. The reason Washington is so divided is that the country is. How do you fix that? It's a harder question. But don't look to Washington to fix this. Look to us to fix it.
BURELSON: Mick —
KING: But when it comes to the election deniers, though, most — that primarily is the Republican Party and that, I think, has led to many problems.
MULVANEY: No. That’s — that's not true. Look, January 6th is what it is, it was awful, terrible. That's not — I'm not here to defend that.
BURLESON: Right.
MULVANEY: But Democrats have denied election results just as much Republicans if you take January 6th out of the equation.
NANCY CORDES: That's just factually not true.
KING: Yeah.
CORDES: There are hundreds of Republican candidates on the ballot tonight —
KING: Yes.
CORDES: — who have denied the outcome of the last election. There's nothing like that on the Democrat side.
MULVANEY: Stacey Abrams hasn't admitted she lost the last time she ran in Georgia. Look, again, this is the debate, right?
BURLESON: Right.
MULVANEY: Why can't we all agree that everybody's a little bit at risk — a little bit at fault and we try and fix it as opposed to everybody saying, well, it's got to be a Republican fault and until they change, the country's not going to be fixed.
BURLESON: Yeah, Nancy, I want to get to you in a bit. But Mick, I want to touch on something you said. You said politicians, they can't save us. But they sure can divide us. And we hope that politicians reflect this country —
MULVANEY: Yeah.
BURLESON: — but it seems like instead of a reflection, it's an injection of divisiveness. So, why don't you believe that politicians are at the — the crux of why we are so divided — why it is us versus them during this time of year?
MULVANEY: Because —
BURLESON: Through all times of year, to be honest with you
MULVANEY: — politicians derive their power from the people that vote for them. There's no magic sort of black, dark hand of — invisible hand of washing, D.C., looking to the extremes in both parties and saying, send me Marjorie Taylor Greene and send me AOC. That's not how it works. The people in those districts look at those people and say, those are the folks that best represent me.
BURLESON: Yeah.
MULVANEY: Why don't we send them to Washington, D.C. That’s— that’s — that’s what I struggle with.
