Over the course of last week, the liberal media made utter fools of themselves as they appeared to compete with each other for who could concoct the most disgusting puff piece for former Congressman Robert O’Rourke’s 2020 campaign. The award undoubtedly went to Vanity Fair, who all but proposed to him. But according to CBS political correspondent Ed O’Keefe, the media were not to blame for their shameful behavior it was the other Democratic candidates.
While O’Keefe was on Sunday’s Face the Nation, moderator Margaret Brennan posed this question to him: “It was such a rollout for Beto O’Rourke. I mean, people are acting like he is anointed. Is this going to backfire on him?”
Answering “to the charge that the media may have overdone it,” O’Keefe suggested the media didn’t help create the buzz around O’Rourke:
“… [W]e have to remember something, I made this point repeatedly in our reporting this past week. You talk to every other campaign that's involved in this right now, the one name that kept coming up in private conversations was always him. Is he going to do it? Do you think he can raise $80 million again?”
“So, this was them essentially goading us into saying, you know, they're scared of him. Very scared of him,” he argued.
Except that during his report on Thursday, O’Keefe didn’t mention how other Democrats were worried about O’Rourke. But he did gush about how “O’Rourke kept a small footprint on his first day on the presidential campaign trail, even driving his own car.”
O’Keefe even touted how ranking fifth in a poll of Iowa Democrats was a good sign for O’Rourke:
That's a decent start for the 46-year-old who lost a Senate race last year. But it's the fact that he lost by only three points in ruby red Texas, and how he did it, that has won him fans nationwide and worries other Democratic campaigns. He traveled with a small team, never hired consultants, and raised a record $80 million. His popularity stems in part from his constant use of social media, even during a dental cleaning.
Fear from other candidates also didn’t explain how media folks were essentially throwing themselves at O’Rourke. For instance, ABC’s Good Morning America correspondent Paula Faris, who was once dragged for fawning for the “rock star”, looked at O’Rourke with doe eyes on Thursday and asked: “Can hope, change, and unity beat Trump?” Who is he, Obama?
And O’Keefe’s not the only one on CBS to speak glowingly about the failed Senate candidate. On Thursday’s This Morning, co-host Bianna Golodryga suggested he was a moderate candidate, saying: “It is worth noting that his voting record has skewed more to the center than progressive," which was just false.
After blaming the other candidates, O’Keefe took the time to promote how O’Rourke was running in Iowa:
It seems to have gone well for him. And he started very strategically in southeastern Iowa, a part of the state where Democrats used to dominate and have struggled in recent years, and repeatedly people said to me, “You know, they don't usually come to this part of the state until later in the primary, so we give him a lot of credit for doing it.” And we'll see.
It doesn’t add up.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS’s Face the Nation
March 17, 2019
11:04:26 a.m. Eastern(…)
MARGARET BRENNAN: It was such a rollout for Beto O’Rourke. I mean, people are acting like he is anointed. Is this going to backfire on him?
ED O’KEEFE: Well – and I think to the charge that the media may have overdone it, we have to remember something, I made this point repeatedly in our reporting this past week. You talk to every other campaign that's involved in this right now, the one name that kept coming up in private conversations was always him. Is he going to do it? Do you think he can raise $80 million again?
So, this was them essentially goading us into saying, you know, they're scared of him. Very scared of him. And this coffee shop counter-top campaign that he launched this week by jumping up on countertops repeatedly, was it you that said, I hope you brought the Windex along.
[Laughter]
AMY WALTER: Clorox wipes. People are eating on those things.
O’KEEFE: It seems to have gone well for him. And he started very strategically in southeastern Iowa, a part of the state where Democrats used to dominate and have struggled in recent years, and repeatedly people said to me, “You know, they don't usually come to this part of the state until later in the primary, so we give him a lot of credit for doing it.” And we'll see.
(…)
