On Wednesday’s New Day, CNN co-host John Berman collaborated with Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) to campaign for Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris. Berman pretended that Harris is a moderate and even laughably suggested that the “progressive wing” of the Democratic Party might need to be appeased. He also set up Coons to spout nonsense propaganda about Harris’s personality.
Berman excitedly began the segment by proclaiming that Coons “is a longtime friend of Joe Biden” and set him up to stump for Harris:
BERMAN: He is a longtime friend of Joe Biden who has been working on behalf of the campaign, and every Biden campaign, I think, since you were a young man. Senator Coons, thanks for being with us this morning. I know you spoke to the former Vice President not long after the selection went public. So what did he tell you about why he chose Senator Harris and why he's excited about this pick?
COONS: Hey, well, John, Joe and Jill Biden were excited about Kamala Harris being Joe's running mate, being someone who's got experience, not just on the campaign trail but governing, someone who ran the largest law office in our country. As attorney general, she was elected statewide twice. She was responsible for 7,000 attorneys. In the Senate, she served with me on the Judiciary Committee. She's also on the Intelligence, Homeland Security, and Budget Committees. Joe feels that she's seasoned, she's got experience, she'll be not just a great running mate but a great partner in governing, and that she will help him fulfill his promise that the ticket, now the Biden/Harris ticket, will look like America, will represent the strength that immigrants bring to our country, the racial diversity that we need to make progress. He knows what it means, John, to take over as vice president in the middle of an economic crisis. That's what happened when he and Barack Obama took office back in 2008. They had a lot to fix. He knows in Kamala Harris he'll have a great partner in making progress in addressing the mess that the Trump administration has made, bungling the pandemic response and the economic wreckage that's resulted.
Berman then encouraged Coons to spout clichés about the “funny” and “warm” Harris:
BERMAN: You just ran down Senator Harris' resume. You have served in the Senate with her, including on the Judiciary Committee. Tell me about her. What don't we know about her that you do?
COONS: I also will always remember when I first met her as a Senate candidate. She was compelling. She was engaging. She's funny and she's warm. She is capable of being both a very tough questioner in the Judiciary Committee, going after Attorney General Barr or Attorney General Sessions, and then she's equally capable of being warm and engaging and upbeat. She’s someone who will be terrific to campaign with and to govern with.
Completely detached from reality, Berman actually fretted that the left-wing Harris was too moderate to win over the “progressive wing” of the Democratic Party:
You know, you come from, I think, admittedly, more of the center of the Democratic Party than perhaps some progressives who ran for president, who ran against Senator Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden in the primaries. And there are people in the party this morning who -- who may not be as enthusiastic as you are about the Harris pick. People who look at Senator Harris' record when she was attorney general and district attorney, who say she didn't do enough to fight police brutality. This is one quote from Dave Campo, the chairman of the San Francisco Democratic Party, who said, you have someone saying all the right things now, but when she had the opportunity to do something about police accountability, she was either not visible or when she was, she was on the wrong side. So what's your message to that progressive wing this morning?
The “progressive wing” will be just fine as Harris is no moderate. Harris has endorsed far-left policies such as Medicare for all, eliminating private health insurance, the Green New Deal, gun control, lowering the voting age, and has said that the Boston bomber should be able to vote. It seems like Berman is probably more concerned with winning over moderate viewers by lying to them about Harris’s true intentions.
Further proving that CNN is not a news network, the Democratic Party cable channel is bringing on Biden’s pals to propagandize for him.
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Read the full August 12th transcript here:
CNN's New Day
08/12/20
7:04 AM ET
JOHN BERMAN: Joining us now, Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. He is a longtime friend of Joe Biden who has been working on behalf of the campaign, and every Biden campaign, I think, since you were a young man. Senator Coons, thanks for being with us this morning. I know you spoke to the former Vice President not long after the selection went public. So what did he tell you about why he chose Senator Harris and why he's excited about this pick?
SENATOR CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Hey, well, John, Joe and Jill Biden were excited about Kamala Harris being Joe's running mate, being someone who's got experience, not just on the campaign trail but governing, someone who ran the largest law office in our country. As attorney general, she was elected statewide twice. She was responsible for 7,000 attorneys. In the Senate, she served with me on the Judiciary Committee. She's also on the Intelligence, Homeland Security, and Budget Committees. Joe feels that she's seasoned, she's got experience, she'll be not just a great running mate but a great partner in governing, and that she will help him fulfill his promise that the ticket, now the Biden/Harris ticket, will look like America, will represent the strength that immigrants bring to our country, the racial diversity that we need to make progress. He knows what it means, John, to take over as vice president in the middle of an economic crisis. That's what happened when he and Barack Obama took office back in 2008. They had a lot to fix. He knows in Kamala Harris he'll have a great partner in making progress in addressing the mess that the Trump administration has made, bungling the pandemic response and the economic wreckage that's resulted.
BERMAN: You just ran down Senator Harris' resume. You have served in the Senate with her, including on the Judiciary Committee. Tell me about her. What don't we know about her that you do?
COONS: Well, one thing you know that I know, is that she's a strong lawyer, she prepares well, she's tough on witnesses. She knows how to step up to a challenge and how to get tough questions answered. What you wouldn't know is that in a moment that mattered deeply to me, when my father passed away in the middle of the night and I had to come to the floor to cast one more vote first thing in the morning before I could leave and go be with my family, she came to me and was incredibly warm, comforting, encouraging. She gave me real solace in a tough moment. And that was striking to me, because I was on the floor with dozens of my colleagues, some of them I've known for many years, and I’d only known her for a couple. And she -- hers was one of the most earnest, heartfelt, sincere moments of comfort and engagement. I also will always remember when I first met her as a Senate candidate. She was compelling. She was engaging. She's funny and she's warm. She is capable of being both a very tough questioner in the Judiciary Committee, going after Attorney General Barr or Attorney General Sessions, and then she's equally capable of being warm and engaging and upbeat. She’s someone who will be terrific to campaign with and to govern with.
BERMAN: You talked about those moments inside the Judiciary Committee, inside those hearings. I think William Barr will remember them, for sure.
COONS: Yes, he will.
BERMAN: This is one of those -- this was one of those moments. Listen.
(Cuts to video)
SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): Has the President or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? Yes or no, please, sir?
WILLIAM BARR (U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL): The President or anybody else?
HARRIS: Seems you’d remember something like that and be able to tell us?
BARR: Yeah, but I'm -- I’m trying to grapple with the word, suggest. I mean, there have been discussions of -- of matters out there that they’ve not asked me to open an investigation, but --
HARRIS: Perhaps they've suggested?
BARR: I don't know, I wouldn't say suggest.
HARRIS: Hinted?
BARR: I don't know.
(Cuts to live)
BERMAN: So how do you think that's going to translate on to the debate stage against Mike Pence?
COONS: Well, I think President Trump and Vice President Pence had a very bad day yesterday. And their flailing initial attacks on her suggest they don't quite know how to take on Senator Harris. And I think the vice president, Mike Pence, will have his hands full on the debate stage this fall with Senator Harris. She prepares thoroughly and well. She delivers tough points, and I think she'll draw a very clear and sharp contrast with his leadership, his values, his priorities. Frankly, what most Americans care about is how will their lives be better if President Biden is our next President of the United States and Kamala Harris is the next Vice President. And one of the things I think she's focused on is how to make a difference for working families, who know everything they need to know about the Trump/Pence record, and they want to hear, how will things be better? The first thing I think the Biden/Harris administration will do is stop the lawsuit in front of the Supreme Court that's trying to take away healthcare protections from 130 million Americans in the middle of a pandemic. Trying to strengthen healthcare, abandoning the court case that's trying to take it away would be one of the most important first-day actions that I know a Biden presidency would take.
BERMAN: You know, you come from, I think, admittedly, more of the center of the Democratic Party than perhaps some progressives who ran for president, who ran against Senator Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden in the primaries. And there are people in the party this morning who -- who may not be as enthusiastic as you are about the Harris pick. People who look at Senator Harris' record when she was attorney general and district attorney, who say she didn't do enough to fight police brutality. This is one quote from Dave Campo, the chairman of the San Francisco Democratic Party, who said, you have someone saying all the right things now, but when she had the opportunity to do something about police accountability, she was either not visible or when she was, she was on the wrong side. So what's your message to that progressive wing this morning?
COONS: My message would be, in recent months, in the Senate, I saw Senator Harris fight harder than anyone else, right alongside Senator Cory Booker, to make sure that the Justice and Policing Act was not just the strongest and broadest policing reform bill ever introduced in the Senate but that that was the priority, that was the legislative agenda that moved forward. She has been a fierce advocate of policing reform in the Senate. And so, you know, frankly, I'm sure you can find folks who will be critical of anyone who Joe Biden could have chosen. He had a very talented, very capable group of a dozen candidates who he seriously considered. In the end, I trust Joe that he made the right choice. I know Senator Harris, I'm excited about this ticket and she has been a very strong and very capable advocate for civil rights, for civil liberties, for policing reform, for immigration reform, for combating gun violence, all on the committee where we've served together for years.
BERMAN: I do want to ask one question not about this selection because I thought of you when this was said out loud. You, of course, went Yale Divinity School. I believe you're an ordained minister. President Trump attacked Joe Biden on religion and said he would, quote, “hurt God.” I want to play this.
(Cuts to video)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: He's going to do things that nobody ever would think even possible because he's following the radical left agenda, take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God. He's against God. He's against guns.
(Cuts to live)
BERMAN: Hurt God, against the Bible, against God. As a man of faith yourself, how do you react to that?
COONS: Well, John, first, just to be -- be clear, I'm not an ordained minister. I was an ordained elder.
BERMAN: Okay.
COONS: I'm a Presbyterian and that's just a -- that’s a lay role within my church, just to be clear. That was a particularly -- of all the things President Trump has said that are so hard to accept or to hear, from a person who -- who holds an office which all of us were raised to respect, that was particularly unfounded and uncalled for and untrue. I've been with Joe Biden in moments public and private, in moments of -- of joy and accomplishment, in moments of deep sadness and loss. I-- I've seen him turn in prayer to God for strength. I've witnessed the ways in which his faith is the foundation of who he is and moves him to act. So all I'm going to say in response is that I do my absolute best to never question or criticize the faith of others, to be humble myself in my practice. But I can say with confidence that over the 30 years I've known Joe Biden, he's a man whose faith is fundamental to who he is, and it's a large part of why he's been such a committed and engaged servant leader. He respects the faith of others. Joe will be a president who respects Americans of all faiths and -- and Americans of good conscience who practice no particular faith. And he's the sort of person who can heal us, bring us together and remind us of the very best in our nation, which is freedom of conscience and respect for those, like Joe Biden, whose faith is private, personal, deep, and strong.
BERMAN: Senator Chris Coons, Presbyterian elder, thank you very much for that clarification. I do appreciate it.
COONS: Thanks.
BERMAN: And thank you for telling us about how you know Senator Harris and what you make of this pick. Thanks very much.
