While CNN initially panned Mitt Romney's Wednesday reception by the NAACP as "very negative," anchor Kyra Phillips was quite jovial about Joe Biden quoting scripture to the audience the next day.
A gleeful Phillips gushed that Biden "rolled out the scripture. He got spiritual on them, and they loved it! That is Joe Biden, we had to expect that." [Video below. Audio here.]
CNN's initial reaction to the two speeches is telling. After Romney's speech, CNN focused on the boos he received and reported the reception as "very negative," even though he received plenty of applause as well as a standing ovation from many attendees at the end. Correspondent Jim Acosta did mention the applause in his report hours later.
However, Romney was also speaking to a heavily pro-Democratic group. After the Democrat Joe Biden addressed the NAACP, Phillips broke her stoic reporter's demeanor and raved over his reception as if it were noteworthy.
"Ana Navarro, you have strong opinions to why you think the President did not go and ask Joe Biden to stand in for him," she said to the GOP strategist. "Then you see a speech like this, you get a reaction like this, and you tend to think, okay, it looks like that was a pretty good decision to make."
Democratic strategist Donna Brazile chimed in that "it was a family reunion. Joe Biden, as I mentioned, is very familiar with this audience."
However, Phillips seemed to contradict herself later by asking if Obama made a mistake by not addressing the NAACP in person – even though she had just said it was a "pretty good decision" to have Biden speak instead.
"Is he [Obama] taking the African-American vote for granted just by doing a video message and letting his number two come and make the big speech today?" she asked Donna Brazile.
