Amid a glowing profile of Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams on CBS Sunday Morning, correspondent Erin Moriarty shamelessly urged the left-wing activist to run for president. That in-kind campaign donation came after the reporter hailed Abrams for having “got even” with Republicans in 2020 following her failed gubernatorial bid in 2018.
Teasing the upcoming obsequious interview, host Jane Pauley cheered Abrams as “a force in last year’s presidential election” and “a woman of many other talents.” A brief clip was then shown of the Democrat musing about her political future: “I plan to run for office again, but I have no decision about what’s going to be next.” Moriarty eagerly chimed in: “Presidency? I know you have said in the past – ” Abrams assured her: “In the future, yes, that is something I would like to run for.” Moriarty gushed: “Stacey Abrams has always dreamed big and accomplished much...”
“She’s forged a reputation in recent years as a fighter for voting rights. And then there’s her other somewhat less well known literary calling,” Pauley touted as the segment began minutes later, referencing Abrams’s previous career as a writer of romance novels under a pseudonym. Moriarty’s friendly chat with Abrams started off by hawking the latest work of fiction from the Democratic Party hack:
And this book, While Justice Sleeps, bears her real name: Stacey Abrams....And yet, it really shouldn’t surprise anyone that this 47-year-old Yale-educated tax lawyer, long-time Georgia politician, and voting rights activist, could dream up a complicated plot that involves gene therapy, a corrupt American president, and a female Supreme Court law clerk.
Continuing to act as adoring fan rather than journalist, Moriarty swooned: “Your main character is always a woman of color who’s smart and gutsy and cool under pressure. In short, Stacey Abrams?” Abrams confirmed: “Well, I try to emulate my characters, and I try to have my characters reflect who I am.”
While recalling Abram’s failed 2018 run for governor of Georgia, Moriarty worked to cast doubt on the victory of her Republican opponent:
Her opponent was Brian Kemp, at the time, the Georgia secretary of state, who ran the election. He won the governor’s race by less than two percentage points....According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Kemp, during his time as secretary of state, purged 1.5 million voters from election rolls. Kemp says he was eliminating ineligible voters to protect the integrity of the election. Abrams claims says by doing that Kemp stole the election.
To her credit, the CBS correspondent at least asked the obvious question about Abrams refusing to accept election results: “You admitted that the new governor would be Brian Kemp, but you didn’t concede....You know that some people say, ‘Then what is the difference between Stacey Abrams not conceding an election in 2018 and President Trump not conceding the election two years later?’”
Attempting to defend her blatant hypocrisy, Abrams argued: “I never once filed a challenge to make myself the governor of Georgia. I have always ever fought to make certain that every vote got counted and every person got included.”
Rather than follow-up with a challenging question, Moriarty sympathetically wondered: “Were you angry after the election?” Abrams replied: “Oh, yes. I did the stages of grief, I spent a lot of time in anger.”
Moriarty then triumphantly declared: “And then, you might say, Abrams got even. She started Fair Fight, a voter registration group that is widely credited with helping President Joe Biden win the state of Georgia in the 2020 election, and in a runoff election held on January 5th, put two new Democrats in the U.S. Senate.” Though she ominously warned: “The wins were also the impetus for new election laws, pushed by Republicans in state legislatures, which Abrams says are really designed to deny poor and older voters of color a voice in elections.”
Hoping all of Abrams’s activism on behalf of the Democratic Party would help her future political fortunes, Moriarty proclaimed: “Ensuring that right to vote may some day help Abrams achieve her greatest dream: Running for president.” Abrams admitted she did “hold it as an ambition” and even claimed that she has “a responsibility to say yes for every young woman, every person of color, every young person of color who sees me and decides what they’re capable of based on what I think I’m capable of.”
The sycophantic segment wrapped up with Moriarty asking about the radical Democrat’s relationship status: “How do you have any time for a personal life?”
Leftists like Abrams can count on her allies in the liberal media providing her with a softball forum to preach her talking points, sell her book, and even promote her possible presidential run with little or no push-back.
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Here is a full transcript of the May 9 segment:
9:02 AM ET TEASE
JANE PAULEY: We’re in conversation this morning with Stacey Abrams, the Georgia politician who was a force in last year’s presidential election. But she’s a woman of many other talents, as she’ll tell Erin Moriarty.
STACEY ABRAMS: I plan to run for office again, but I have no decision about what’s going to be next.
ERIN MORIARTY: Presidency? I know you have said in the past –
ABRAMS: In the future, yes, that is something I would like to run for.
MORIARTY: Stacey Abrams has always dreamed big and accomplished much, but there’s also another side to the political activist from Georgia.
ABRAMS: I think people will be surprised.
MORIARTY: Coming up on Sunday Morning, a conversation with a woman of many talents and identities.
9:16 AM ET SEGMENT
JANE PAULEY: She’s forged a reputation in recent years as a fighter for voting rights. And then there’s her other somewhat less well known literary calling. Who is she? Here’s Erin Moriarty.
STACEY ABRAMS: “Rising again, Avery carefully folded the pages in her hand and crossed to the door. This time when her hand closed on the brass handle, her rage was steady and cool.”
ERIN MORIARTY: If you don’t know the name Selena Montgomery, here’s a hint: It’s the pen name of a best-selling author who has written eight romance novels and now her first thriller.
ABRAMS: “She’d been a lot of things in her life, some legal, some questionable.” I don’t remember not writing. I think as soon as I learned to read and write, I was hard at it.
MORIARTY: And this book, While Justice Sleeps, bears her real name: Stacey Abrams. Yes, that Stacey Abrams.
ABRAMS: I think people will be surprised, if they don’t know that I’ve written fiction before. I think they’ll be surprised.
MORIARTY: And yet, it really shouldn’t surprise anyone that this 47-year-old Yale-educated tax lawyer, long-time Georgia politician, and voting rights activist, could dream up a complicated plot that involves gene therapy, a corrupt American president, and a female Supreme Court law clerk. How do you have time for not only just writing these books, but the research that’s involved?
ABRAMS: I’m – so I’m the daughter of a research librarian. My nom was a research librarian when I was going up. I grew up not only writing, but learning how to research, learning how to dive in and think strategically about how to learn new things.
MORIARTY: Your main character is always a woman of color who’s smart and gutsy and cool under pressure. In short, Stacey Abrams?
ABRAMS: Well, I try to emulate my characters, and I try to have my characters reflect who I am.
MORIARTY: Abrams grew up in Mississippi and then Georgia. Her parents, who both became Methodist ministers later in life, encouraged their six children to have high aspirations, big dreams that sometimes ran into hard reality. In 1991, Abrams, as valedictorian of her high school class, was invited to meet of governor of Georgia.
ABRAMS: My parents and I arrived on the Marta bus because we didn’t have a car. We go up the driveway of the governor’s mansion, we get to the guard gate, and the guard stops us and tells us we don’t belong there, that it’s a private event. My dad says, “No, this is my daughter, Stacey, we have an invitation.” But the guard doesn’t ask for the invitation that my mom has, but I remember him watching the bus pull off –
MORIARTY: And weren’t you mortified?
ABRAMS: Oh, absolutely. And if my mother had not had my arm in a death grip, I would have been back on that bus. I think two things happened that day, one, they were not going to let me be denied this honor that I’d achieved. But two, I think they wanted me to see my responsibility is not to let someone else tell me who I am and where I belong.
MORIARTY: She has never forgotten that lesson. In 2006, she won a seat as a Democrat in the Georgia Assembly and became the first female minority leader of her party. In 2018, she hoped to go back to the governor’s mansion by running for governor.
ABRAMS: I don’t want anyone to elect me because I’m black. I don’t want anyone to elect me because I’m a woman. But we need to elect me because I’m better.
MORIARTY: Her opponent was Brian Kemp, at the time, the Georgia secretary of state, who ran the election. He won the governor’s race by less than two percentage points. You admitted that the new governor would be Brian Kemp, but you didn’t concede.
ABRAMS: I acknowledge that former Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be certified as the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial election. But to watch an elected official who claims to represent the people in this state baldly pin his hopes for election on the suppression of the people’s democratic right to vote has been truly appalling.
MORIARTY: According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Kemp, during his time as secretary of state, purged 1.5 million voters from election rolls. Kemp says he was eliminating ineligible voters to protect the integrity of the election. Abrams claims says by doing that Kemp stole the election.
You know that some people say, “Then what is the difference between Stacey Abrams not conceding an election in 2018 and President Trump not conceding the election two years later?”
ABRAMS: Words matter. What I have fought for, what I have said consistently, what even they will admit, those who are unhappy with me, is that I never once filed a challenge to make myself the governor of Georgia. I have always ever fought to make certain that every vote got counted and every person got included.
MORIARTY: Were you angry after the election?
ABRAMS: Oh, yes. I did the stages of grief, I spent a lot of time in anger. That was my favorite stage. I came back several times, built a small condo. [Laughter]
MORIARTY: And then, you might say, Abrams got even. She started Fair Fight, a voter registration group that is widely credited with helping President Joe Biden win the state of Georgia in the 2020 election, and in a runoff election held on January 5th, put two new Democrats in the U.S. Senate. It was no coincidence, says Abrams, that one day later, protestors stormed the U.S. Capitol, some caring the Confederate flag.
ABRAMS: That flag has always been a declaration of domestic terrorism against communities they thought were not worthy of being able to call themselves citizens. And so, yes, there is absolutely a through line from what we accomplished in Georgia to what happened on January 6th.
MORIARTY: The wins were also the impetus for new election laws, pushed by Republicans in state legislatures, which Abrams says are really designed to deny poor and older voters of color a voice in elections.
ABRAMS: You earlier said people take voting for granted. When you’ve never had to think about the hardship of voting, then, yes, these conversations about voter suppression seem absurd to you. When you’ve never spent more than seven minutes in line, it is nearly impossible to imagine that there are poor black people who stand in line for eight hours, miss an entire day’s wages, risk losing their jobs, simply to cast a ballot in an election that may or may not have any benefit in their lives.
Hello, Georgia!
MORIARTY: Ensuring that right to vote may some day help Abrams achieve her greatest dream: Running for president.
ABRAMS: Do I hold it as an ambition? Absolutely. And even more importantly, when someone asks me if that’s my ambition, I have a responsibility to say yes for every young woman, every person of color, every young person of color who sees me and decides what they’re capable of based on what I think I’m capable of. Again, it’s about you cannot have those things you refuse to dream up.
MORIARTY: With Georgia, Florida, and most recently Texas, passing laws that limit voting, Abrams is expanding Fair Fight’s efforts around the country. She has a virtual book tour plan for her new novel, and, of course, more books to write, which leaves little time for anything else. How do you have any time for a personal life?
ABRAMS: Well, let’s be clear. So Fair Fight, there’s also the Southern Economic Advancement Project, there’s Fair Count, there’s writing –
MORIARTY: You’re making my point for me. You’re making my point.
ABRAMS: Well, here’s my point. I would love to give priority to my personal life, the last year has made that a little less possible. I was dating someone before the pandemic hit, it ended before the pandemic did, but I look forward –
MORIARTY: Because you were so busy? Because you just didn’t have time?
ABRAMS: That was the complaint.
MORIARTY: And, also, you’re a very public person.
ABRAMS: He also found that a bit distracting, yes.
MORIARTY: Yes?
ABRAMS: That said, hopefully there’s another guy out there for whom those are not disqualifiers.
MORIARTY: Is that one of your goals?
ABRAMS: Yes. It’s nice to like somebody and to have someone like you. I wrote a lot of books about it.
