During an interview with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Brooke Baldwin skipped her own network’s poll showing more independents disagree than agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling on ObamaCare. Such cherry-picking is not uncommon for CNN hosts as Baldwin's colleague Soledad O’Brien has engaged in the practice to prop up ObamaCare as well.
When Priebus challenged Baldwin over her polling claims, she doubled down and continued to selectively highlight data that fit her narrative. Brooke cited a Gallup poll showing 46 percent of all voters agree with the Supreme Court’s decision and 45 percent of independents agree as well. Baldwin left out the key piece of data from CNN's poll which found that while 47 percent of independents agree with the ruling, a majority, 52 percent disagree. [Video coming soon. MP3 audio here.]
Later on in the segment Baldwin turned to a Gallup poll which found independent voters agreeing with the decision 45-42.
Baldwin did, however, cite CNN's poll numbers favoring Obama: "If the law were to be repealed, Americans don't actually think Mitt Romney is the one to do it," she lectured Priebus. "I have a poll and this poll here is, let’s see this is the CNN/ORC poll, registered voters, who would better handle health care, Obama 51 percent, Romney 44 percent. Does that concern you?"
Priebus is a capable spokesman for his party and his political philosophy and is a veteran at dealing with biased liberals in the media, but that doesn't excuse Baldwin's determination to play ObamaCare booster rather than objective journalist.
See the relevant transcript below.
CNN
STARTING POINT
07/03/2012
7:32 a.m.
BROOKE BALDWIN: Reince Priebus is the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Reince, good morning to you.
REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIRMAN: Hey, Brooke. Good morning.
BALDWIN: Let me just coming out of the gates and ask you this, did Eric Fehrnstrom just make your job a heck of a lot more difficult?
PRIEBUS: No. You know, this is the problem, I think you have these conversations about a Supreme Court ruling that we all don't like, at least don't like it. I don't agree with it. But that doesn't mean even though I don't agree with it, and even though I agree with a dissent of that opinion, it doesn't mean that the truth is not the truth once a Supreme Court speaks. And the Supreme Court has stated that Obamacare is a tax and so since they have ruled that it's a tax --
BALDWIN: I don't know if that was the precise phraseology if you read the verbate from the Supreme Court court, but it could be like a tax or power of Congress to tax. But let me get to this. You know, you say you like it and agree with the dissent. President Obama and Romney per Fernstrum say this is a mandate, not a tax. What is the RNC's position on this?
PRIEBUS: Well, our position is the same as Mitt Romney's position, it's a tax, that's the only way the Supreme Court came up with the decision that it did in order to make it constitutional.
BALDWIN: But it sounds like camp Romney says it was a penalty. So I'm just asking you specifically, Republican National Committee, tax or penalty, which is it?
PRIEBUS: It's a tax and the reason why it's a tax is because the Supreme Court number one ruled that it was a tax and number two, it's what Barack Obama's lawyer argued before the Supreme Court. So here's the problem, Brooke, here's the crux of the issue. The crux of the issue is most Republicans and I think most independents don't believe that Obamacare should have been ruled constitutional or --
BALDWIN: I have to stop you there. I have to stop you there. I was talking to a Republican Congresswoman yesterday and I have to point this out again, we have these polls, Reince. And I just want to show you this. You have Americans reaction to the Supreme Court decision. This is after last Thursday, 46 percent agree and when you look specifically at independents, 45 percent agree. So let's just agree, can we move off that and I want to ask you this --
PRIEBUS: No, we can't agree with it because most polls, Brooke, show that most Americans by a wide margin over 60 percent don't agree --
BALDWIN: What polls are you looking at?
PRIEBUS: -- That Obamacare is good for the American people. What polls am I looking today?
BALDWIN: I'm looking at "USA Today"/Gallup.
PRIEBUS: -- NBC poll, we have Rasmussen polls, we've got Gallup polls. There are polls all over the map that show that over 60 percent of the American people --
BALDWIN: I haven't seen that poll. I would love to see that. Take a look at this poll. This is the poll we have, Reince.
PRIEBUS: Well maybe we'll e-mail you a bunch of them okay.
BALDWIN: I have a lot of polls and I'm showing you the poll here. That was the Gallup/"USA Today" poll and that's 46 percent of Americans reaction.
PRIEBUS: If that's the case, then we would love to have an election on one issue in November and the question will be, if you believe that Obamacare should be repealed then vote for Mitt Romney, and if you think it should stay then vote for Barack Obama. And I would just love my chances in that question, Brooke.
BALDWIN: We'll see come November. Meantime, whether we say tax, whether we say penalty, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi says it's going to affect 1 percent of the population. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: It's not a tax -- it's a penalty for free riders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So when we -- and I want to be specific for our viewers, when you come up with this 1 percent number, the CBO says in its 2010 report projects in 2016, 3.9 million uninsured Americans will pay this penalty or tax is what you want to call it. U.S. population 2016 expected to rise to 328 million people so you do the math, that's 1 percent. In addition, "Wall Street Journal" Steven Moore writes 70 percent to 75 percent of the tax. So this 1 percent actually falls on those who earn less than $200,000 per year. So with that said, is 1 percent enough of a leg for the Republican Party to stand on to really make this a campaign issue?
PRIEBUS: Absolutely. Because number one, it's spending money that we don't have. And I think that's an important issue in the debt and deficit and the projections in long term over a 10-year period, is that it spends almost $2 trillion we don't have. Plus, Brooke, it affects small business's ability as well, not seen in Nancy Pelosi's numbers are all of the small businesses that are going to be forced into a program that either they can't afford or they don't want. And that's why you see all of these waivers that have come into the White House. I mean, he's had hundreds and hundreds of waivers from companies that don't want to opt into Obamacare. Now the White House had to stop that because it was getting to the point where there are almost too many of these businesses that wanted waivers. The point of all of this is, Mitt Romney is going to do everything he can on day one to repeal Obamacare and we believe that that's an absolutely winning issue for us, Brooke, in November. People don't want Europe in America and I think that the solution to that is firing Barack Obama and putting Mitt Romney in office.
BALDWIN: If the law were to be repealed, Americans don't actually think Mitt Romney is the one to do it. And again, if I may, Reince, I have a poll and this poll here is, let’s see this is the CNN/ORC poll, registered voters, who would better handle health care, Obama 51 percent, Romney 44 percent. Does that concern you?
PRIEBUS: You know, a snapshot always concerns me, but I mean, I also know it's a long campaign and I think at the end of the day, people generally and I'm convinced of this, Brooke, we don't agree today. But I think generally people don't agree that Obamacare is good for America. People understand that Mitt Romney will get rid of Obamacare and obviously, people who don't believe that Obamacare or European health care is good for America, know that Barack Obama is not the answer. And he is the one that went to Supreme Court and made sure it got jammed down our throats. And unfortunately for us, the majority has spoken, Obamacare is a tax and Mitt Romney is the guy to get rid of it.
BALDWIN: Ok, Reince Priebus, we'll see what happens in November. We appreciate you.
