Gayle King quickly corrected herself on Thursday's CBS This Morning, after revealing that "we were all laughing" at the strife within the Republican Party during the presidential primaries. The open Obama supporter pointed out that Bernie Sanders was "clearly very irritated that Democratic leaders would even suggest that he has something to do with the violence that may or may not occur," and wondered, "What is this doing to the Democratic Party? We were all laughing — not laughing, but saying the Republicans don't have it together; and now here, the Democrats seem to be a hot mess." [video below]
Anchor Norah O'Donnell brought on CBS News political director John Dickerson for his take on the recent chaos in the Democratic presidential race. She underlined that "we're talking about violence at the Democratic convention, like 1968 — I mean, Senator [Dianne] Feinstein floating it?" Dickerson replied, "Yeah. The parties have flipped — right? It was supposed to be the Republican convention that was crazy."
The Face the Nation host continued by asserting, "I think 1968 — that's a little hot. And this is some of the pressure Bernie Sanders is feeling — where he's saying, wait a minute. Stop talking about that kind of violence. You're trying to mischaracterize our legitimate complaints about the party."
Co-anchor Charlie Rose then spotlighted a recent line from the New York Times: "Sanders willing to harm Clinton in homestretch." Dickerson explained that the "harm is that you have these fights...take all the attention away from Clinton's desire to turn the conversation to a fight about Donald Trump. It also exacerbates an underlying weakness of the Clinton campaign...It makes her seem like a person who can't put the race away." King's "laughing" stumble came near the end of the segment.
The full transcript of the John Dickerson segment from the May 19, 2016 edition of CBS This Morning:
NORAH O'DONNELL: CBS News political director and 'Face the Nation' moderator, John Dickerson, is here. John, good morning.
[CBS News Graphic: "The Democratic Divide: Dickerson On Potential Drama At Philly Convention"]
JOHN DICKERSON: Good morning, Norah.
O'DONNELL: Now, we're talking about violence at the Democratic convention, like 1968 — I mean, Senator Feinstein floating it?
DICKERSON: Yeah. The parties have flipped — right? It was supposed to be the Republican convention that was crazy. I think 1968 — that's a little hot. And this is some of the pressure Bernie Sanders is feeling — where he's saying, wait a minute. Stop talking about that kind of violence. You're trying to mischaracterize our legitimate complaints about the party. In 1968, there was the Vietnam War. There were protesters there who were being hit by police in the streets. That was part of what the — the violence was about.
I think 1980 is the more interesting parallel in the Democratic Party. You had Ted Kennedy, who had lost to Jimmy Carter. Carter had the delegates. He was going to the nomination. It was locked up. But Kennedy kept fighting anyway. He had a meeting with Carter and said, let's have one last debate — in the same way Bernie Sanders is calling for a debate now. Carter didn't want to do it. So, Kennedy took it all the way to the convention, and ended up being the liberal hero coming out of that convention. You can imagine Bernie Sanders taking the same route.
CHARLIE ROSE: Here's the New York Times: 'Sanders willing to harm Clinton in homestretch.'
DICKERSON: Here's the harm: the harm is that you have these fights that we're having right now, which take all the attention away from Clinton's desire to turn the conversation to a fight about Donald Trump. It also exacerbates an underlying weakness of the Clinton campaign — because it continues to, kind of, dog her. It makes her seem like a person who can't put the race away. We'll see what happens in New Jersey and California, where she's likely to do well. We may not be having this conversation next week. But if he's going to take this all the way to the convention, it just keeps dogging her while she's try to get the conversation to be about Donald Trump's problems.
GAYLE KING: Well, he's clearly very irritated that Democratic leaders would even suggest that he has something to do with the violence that may or may not occur. What is this doing to the Democratic Party? We were all laughing — not laughing, but saying the Republicans don't have it together; and now here, the Democrats seem to be a hot mess.
DICKEROSN: Well, the problem is they've got to find something to unify around. And if they're having these fights all the time, it's hard to talk about unity.
KING: All right. John Dickerson, thank you very much.
