John Harwood, formerly of CNBC, kicked off his new start at CNN on a very humiliating downslope so severe that he had to delete his own embarrassing tweet due to the mocking blowback he received.
How bad was it? So bad that Harwood reached back almost 160 years in history to compare the senators voting against more witnesses during the Trump impeachment trial to the old Confederacy. Although Harwood might think his February 1 tweet might have disappeared down the memory hole, nothing on the web is ever permanently gone and his absurd words will live on for all eternity:
of 51 Republican senators who voted to block John Bolton’s testimony in Trump impeachment trial, 25 represent states of the Confederacy during the Civil War
the old Confederacy represents the bulwark of the 21st century
Later the same day he posted a laughably lame explanation for the deletion:
deleted a tweet because I made a tabulation mistake. 23 of 51 Senate GOP votes to block Bolton testimony came from states of the old Confederacy, not 25. apologies for the error
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) February 2, 2020
This excuse inspired a mocking reply from his former CNBC colleague, Jake Novak:
This is like convicting Al Capone on tax evasion. The problem with the tweet went far beyond math, it sought to insert a racial divide & fear where there was none... pretty much the strategy against Trump all along. Let’s not try to re-fight the Civil War for nothing
— Jake Novak (@jakejakeny) February 2, 2020
Despite the fact that Harwood deleted his Confederacy tweet which continues to live on in infamy, his January 31 CNN article, "Republicans prove they refuse to defy Trump under almost any circumstance," also conjures up the Confederate states showing he seems to have Confederacy on his mind.
White Southerners in Congress identified with Nixon's conservatism -- but generally belonged to the opposition party. In 1974, Democrats still held 17 of 26 Senate seats in the 13 states of the old Confederacy.
And congratulations to John Harwood for joining the Confederacy of Dunces at CNN. He will fit right in.
