Morning Joe absolutely unloaded on Elizabeth Warren this morning. The proximate cause was the release of her memo on behalf of a corporate client seeking to avoid responsibility for cleaning up a toxic-waste site. But the broader issue addressed was her lack of authenticity/honesty across the board.
John Heilemann warned: "When there’s a whiff of fraudulence about a candidate, it’s a huge problem, and that is what the Warren people know is her weakness. They see it in her numbers; they see it in her polling."
Steve Schmidt was absolutely brutal. He said of Warren:
- She has "a tremendous talent for self-righteousness and hypocrisy."
- She claimed Native American ancestry to "game the system" and denied sending her son to private school to "game the public."
- "She has proven over and over again a proclivity for dishonesty."
- He twice warned Dems not to nominate her.
For his full quotes, see the transcript below.
All this has to be music to the ears of Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Pete Buttigieg. Did the Morning Joe crew intend to help one of those candidates in particular? Or more likely, are they focused on nixing Warren's nomination because, as Schmidt melodramatically put it, defeating President Trump is an "existential" issue for the country? Or better put, for the liberal media?
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
12/10/19
7:25 am ETJOHN HEILEMANN: When there’s a whiff of fraudulence about a candidate, it’s a huge problem, and that is what the Warren people know is her weakness. They see it in her numbers; they see it in her polling.
. . .
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You have these concerns about her possibly being hypocritical, it seems to cut her even more as a candidate, and hurt her campaign all the more.
STEVE SCHMIDT: She does seem to have a tremendous talent for self-righteousness and hypocrisy, and it’s been on display now for the American people for a lot of this election.
. . .
In big parts of this country, you can’t say a couple of things out loud. You can't say, for example, in polite company, why is it that Elizabeth Warren checked the box as a Native American on her Harvard law school application? I know why she checked the box. She checked the box because she was trying to game the system. I know why she said that her kid went to public school as opposed to private school, because she’s trying to game the public.
Over and over again, she has misrepresented herself in this sheen of self-righteousness and virtue and hypocrisy, and the Democratic party has to look long and hard at this candidacy. Do the Democrats want to nominate possibly the second candidate in a row that’s going to lose an honesty debate to the most prolific liar who’s ever been President of the United States?
. . .
Who the Democrats nominate is above and beyond its usual importance in this election because defeating Trump is such an existential question for the country. And she has proven over and over again a proclivity for dishonesty that is positively Trumpian and I think it’s time for Democratic voters to understand the consequences of that going into a general election.
