Tiffany Cross is ticked. The MSNBC host was incensed on Saturday that Georgia Democrats in general, and Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in particular, have gone too easy on Herschel Walker, specifically with regard to allegations that he urged two former girlfriends to have abortions.
On her MSNBC show The Cross Connection, Cross first talked about it in somewhat veiled terms, saying:
I feel like there's a polite chitchat and talk that we have, publicly. There's a completely separate conversation that happens privately around this. And maybe that conversation and that level of fight needs to be made public.
A bit later, Cross spelled out precisely what she had in mind:
"It was really surprising at the debate. Every answer could have been, 'dude lied about having an abortion. He lied about being a law-enforcement agent."
Warnock's lucky he didn't choose Cross as his debate coach. If he had taken her advice and worked abortion allegations against Walker into virtually every answer, voters would surely have soon been turned off by such a tiresome and transparent ploy.
Note: as you'll see at the beginning of the clip, in her never-ending quest to demonstrate her hipness by sprinkling pop-culture references into her spiels, Cross actually recycled a mention we caught her making back in August of "99 problems," the title of a Jay-Z song.
On her MSNBC show, Tiffany Cross expressing frustration that Raphael Warnock hasn't gone harder at Herschel Walker on abortion, even suggesting that at the debate, every one of Warnock's answers could have been "dude lied about abortion," was sponsored in part by GlaxoSmithKline, maker of Shingrix, Pfizer, and Fidelity.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC's The Cross Connection
10/29/22
10:14 am EDTLINDSEY GRAHAM: What is it about this guy [pointing at Herschel Walker sitting next to him]? He changes the entire narrative of the left. We're a party of racists, Sean. Me and you are racists. The Republican party's racist.
Well, what happens when the Republican party elects, and nominates Herschel walker, an African-American, black, Heisman trophy winner, right? Olympian. It destroys the whole narrative. They're scared to death of Herschel walker. Because if Herschel Walker becomes a Republican, maybe every other young child in America of color might want to be a Republican.
TIFFANY CROSS: Okay, Lindsey Graham, you have 99 problems, my friend. That is not one of them. Run young people are becoming Republicans.
But listen, Republicans are converging on the Peach State to rally behind Herschel Walker, with just ten days to go before the midterms, and more than a million votes already cast. That's according to Georgi's secretary of state.
Now, this GOP support comes even after another woman has come forward to allege she had an abortion in 1993 after Walker pressured her to do so. During the press conference, the woman provided what she said was evidence of a relationship with Walker, but she didn't have specific evidence of the abortion. Walker has denied her allegation, and one from another woman, as well.
. . .Take a listen. The second woman who has come out and alleged that Herschel Walker paid for her abortion, she's anonymous, so we're referring to her as Jane Doe. Listen to Jane Doe talk about her experience. Take a listen.
JANE DOE: I am a registered independent, and I voted for Donald Trump in both elections. I do not believe that Herschel is morally fit to be a U.S. Senator.
You know, Errin, you put aside the hypocrisy of all of this, and GOP voters. I want to talk about Democrats. Because we really have not seen Senator Warnock go after Walker on this. We haven't seen a lot of Democrats go after Herschel Walker on this. Is that an effective strategy?
Because I feel like there's a polite chitchat and talk that we have, publicly. There's a completely separate conversation that happens privately around this. And maybe that conversation and that level of fight needs to be made public. What do you say?
. . .
ERRIN HAINES: Certainly, I think there were a lot of Democrats who especially thought, even if Reverend Warnock was going to kind of stay above the fray on the campaign trail, that there was a real missed opportunity on that debate stage for him to bring up the first abortion allegation, which had really been dominating the headlines going into that debate, only to really be maybe about 30 seconds of conversation when they actually were face-to-face on the stage together.
There's not going to be another debate, as far as we know, between now and election day. And so, there's not going to be another opportunity like that. And so, you really do wonder, with this being such a tight race and this being in the headlines, is this an opportunity for either Senator Warnock or other Democrats to respond to this second allegation.
You had former President Barack Obama on the ground in Georgia last night. He just focused on encouraging people to vote, and had nothing to say about these allegations or, you know, Herschel Walker.
So, I think that was pretty interesting and telling, that you don't really have these kind of top surrogates or the candidate himself continuing to kind of avoid this topic.
CROSS: Yeah. It was really surprising at the debate. You know, every answer could have been, "dude lied about having an abortion, he lied about being a law-enforcement agent. Barack Obama seemed to have more fight more in him than Warnock did at times.
