ABC’s Jonathan Karl, alongside Martha Raddatz, filled in for George Stephanopoulos as host of This Week on Sunday February 9 and used the opportunity to hit Congressman Tom Cole (R-OK) from the left on a myriad of issues. As of late, the ABC reporter has been especially tough on the Obama White House, but seemed to relish the opportunity to use Democratic talking points to attack the GOP congressman on Sunday.
Following a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report which found that ObamaCare will discourage 2.5 million Americans from working in order to seek ObamaCare subsidies, Karl pressed Cole that despite the CBO report “being a gift to you guys but did you overplay it?”
For his part, the Oklahoma Republican hit back at the ABC reporter and shot down Karl’s talking points and argued that:
ObamaCare has been an issue from day one that's hurt Democrats and helped republicans. Cost them the House. I think it ate into the president’s reelection totals. It's hurting them now. It’s not going to go away because it’s fundamentally a bad policy. And anything that discourages work and that's essentially what the CBO found, that this discourages some people from working. Not a good thing at a time when the economy is still struggling.
Later on the segment, Karl felt the need to once again try and hit Congressman Cole from the left, this time on Benghazi. The ABC reporter hyped a new book about Hillary Clinton entitled HRC in which David Petraeus argued that Ms. Clinton:
Like a lot of great leaders, her impressive qualities were most visible during tough times. In the wake of the Benghazi attacks, for example, I thought she was extraordinarily resolute, determined, and controlled.
Karl used Petraeus’ praise of Ms. Clinton to ask Cole “if David Petraeus is giving Hillary Clinton a pass, in fact praising her for how she handled the Benghazi attacks. Takes a little wind out of the sail doesn’t it?” Karl didn’t bother to push back against Petraeus’ assertions, and instead called them a “fascinating nugget” of information to hit Cole on. If Karl is so willing to give Ms. Clinton a pass on Benghazi, it exposes the lengths that members of the liberal media will go to protect Clinton from scrutiny over her scandal-filled history.
Given that Karl has been one of the few members of the liberal media willing to confront the Obama Administration as of late, its unfortunate that he used his guest-hosting duties to merely spew liberal talking points to attack a GOPer. Instead of challenging the assertions made by liberals on Benghazi and the newly released CBO report Karl showed he was no better than George Stephanopoulos who was an actual Democratic operative for President Bill Clinton.
See relevant transcripts below.
ABC
This Week w/ George Stephanopoulos
February 9, 2014
10:30 a.m. Eastern
JONATHAN KARL: But this CBO report which showed that the equivalent of 2 million plus workers coming out of the economy was a gift to you guys but did you overplay it? I mea this was—
TOM COLE: Oh I don’t think so. ObamaCare has been an issue from day one that's hurt Democrats and helped Republicans. Cost them the House. I think it ate into the president’s reelection totals. It's hurting them now. It’s not going to go away because it’s fundamentally a bad policy. And anything that discourages work and that's essentially what the CBO found, that this discourages some people from working. Not a good thing at a time when the economy is still struggling.
KARL: But the CBO did not say that it was going to result in 2 million fewer jobs.
COLE: I didn't say that either. What the CBO report does say is that we're going to lose 1-2% of hours worked because of this. You can argue that's a good thing. I've heard that argument, give people some choices. And I have no doubt in some cases it is. But discouraging work is not something we need to be doing right now. Making our economy marginally less productive, not a good thing. It's not like this is the only flaw in ObamaCare. We’ve got a wrath of them to talk about.
10:37 a.m.
JONATHAN KARL: On Hillary Clinton, a very interesting thing. There’s a new book out HRC by Jonathan Allen and Ami Parnes. Not a lot new in the book but they did have this fascinating nugget. David Petraeus saying on the record that Hillary Clinton would make a tremendous president. And giving her a pass on Benghazi. Look at this. Like a lot of great leaders, her impressive qualities were most visible during tough times. In the wake of the Benghazi attacks, for example, I thought she was extraordinarily resolute, determined, and controlled. I mean Tom Cole, if David Petraeus is giving Hillary Clinton a pass, in fact praising her for how she handled the Benghazi attacks. Takes a little wind out of the sail doesn’t it?
TOM COLE: I don't think so. Look, it was a debacle. It was on her watch. She should have known security was not taken care of. She calls it herself her greatest regret in her time as Secretary of State. So I think it'll be an issue. Do I think it’s going to be the deciding issue in the campaign? No. Look, I think Americans look at presidential candidates in particular in their totality. And Hillary Clinton has a long record. There's a lot of pluses in it, there’s some minus in it.
