Shhhh! Poppy, what were you thinking when you spoke out loud on CNN the very inconvenient truth just days before the election that there would be fewer fracking jobs in a Biden administration? Here's the quote: "One thing that is clear is that there would be fewer fracking jobs under a Biden administration than under another Trump administration."
Although it seems improbable that anybody in Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, could now believe Joe Biden's pledge not to ban fracking in that state since there are numerous videos of him in the recent past promising to get rid of fracking, it is still not a good idea to highlight what will really happen to workers involved in that industry under a President Biden.
It would not be surprising to find out that CNN producers were screaming into poor Poppy's earpiece as she uttered the fatal words that can't help but cost Biden votes in the Keystone State. The brutal, unwanted (at CNN) truth was blurted out by Harlow during a Newsroom interview with Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown on Friday.
Senator, let me ask you about fracking. It's a big issue for your state. It's a big job creator for your state. It's not totally clear where Joe Biden stands on fracking. One thing that is clear is that there would be fewer fracking jobs under a Biden administration than under another Trump administration. You said in 2012 about fracking, it's a lot of jobs, it's a lot of prosperity, though you did note the environmental and health concerns. But you know how many jobs are tied to it in Ohio.
It is interesting to note that Brown did not dispute Harlow's observation about fewer fracking jobs under a possible Biden administration.
She also actually grilled a Democrat on why there was no second COVID relief bill:
Twelve weeks and no deal in Congress and increased bickering we hear between -- between Nancy Pelosi and the Treasury secretary yesterday. And it's the American people of both parties that are losing right now. How do you explain to your constituents why they have to continue to go with no help from Congress and that Congress has just utterly failed to reach a deal for the people that put them in power?
The bias on CNN was sponsored by Humana. Click on the link to let them know what you think.
Here's the full transcript:
CNN Newsroom
10/30/2020
POPPY HARLOW: With me now, Democratic Senator of Ohio Sherrod Brown. Good morning, Senator, it's good to have you.
SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): Poppy, nice to be with you again. Thank you.
HARLOW: Twelve weeks. Twelve weeks and no deal in Congress and increased bickering we hear between -- between Nancy Pelosi and the Treasury secretary yesterday. And it's the American people of both parties that are losing right now. How do you explain to your constituents why they have to continue to go with no help from Congress and that Congress has just utterly failed to reach a deal for the people that put them in power?
BROWN: Well, the -- it's been 12 weeks since McConnell actually showed some interest. It's been much longer than that, since about May, since the House of Representatives passed a bill. And then, in August, 600,000 people in my state of Ohio alone lost their unemployment insurance -- their $600 a week unemployment --
… [Technical glitch for CNN.]
HARLOW: Let me just pick up on -- we were talking about stimulus and the lack of a deal. I looked back last night at the book you wrote in 1999 called "Congress from the Inside." And at the end of it you talk about the night that you were sworn in for your sixth term in Congress and reading the words of FDR, the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of people who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. Is it not incumbent on you guys right now to make a deal for all of those who have too little, imperfect as it may be?
BROWN: Yes, of course it's going to be imperfect. Even when we passed the really big package back in March, it was imperfect. But it -- it made such a difference. Twelve million people -- one study said 12 million people did not fall and were kept out of poverty because of -- well, because of our -- our -- what we came -- what Congress did. There's no reason we should -- we can do the same kinds of things. We should continue the $600 a week. We need to get help to small business. We need to get help to schools. As you and I talked off the air, Poppy, we need to get help to schools and to governments. And there's just simply no reason we shouldn't be able to do that, but --
HARLOW: But why keep waiting, Senator? I guess that's what I'm asking.
BROWN: Well, keep waiting because --
HARLOW: I mean at this point, with so many millions more falling into poverty, why not take this $1.9 trillion counter from the White House -- I know the complaints about it on your side -- take it --
BROWN: Yes, well, they're --
HARLOW: Get it to the people and then go back to the table?
BROWN: Well, there's -- there's no -- there's no signal that -- that -- that the White House, first of all, will -- will -- will -- I mean the White House puts something out and pulls it back. Senator McConnell hasn't agreed to that. We -- we could -- that's really the basis of getting close to an agreement. But the White House said it and then the White House changed its view and Senator McConnell has never said yes.
HARLOW: Well, he said he -- he would take it to the floor. He said he would take it to the floor is my point.
BROWN: Well, I don't know what that means. You may know that back when we had the really good package that kept people out of poverty, the only amendment that the Republicans wanted on the Senate floor, the only amendment on the $1.5 trillion package was to strip away the $600 a week unemployment. We defeated that, barely, but, I mean, they -- they -- they haven't been serious. The House passes something, then reduces what it passes and it doesn't get -- and then reduces what it passes, continue to move it. Senator McConnell just won't come to the table in any serious way. I mean all summer, as you know, Poppy, he kept saying, I feel no sense of urgency as people lost their $600, and schools struggled to open and didn't have the dollars to reconfigure classrooms and cafeterias.
HARLOW: Well, I -- the -- the urgency now is not debatable. That is -- that is just a fact.
BROWN: Right.
HARLOW: But it's a tragedy for millions of Americans that still nothing has been done.
BROWN: It is.
HARLOW: As is the COVID rate in -- in the state of Ohio. I mean yesterday the highest number of cases in the state of Ohio. Is it time for at least partial lockdowns in some of the counties because the governor said 83 of your 88 counties are now considered high incident areas?
BROWN: Yes, a couple Ohio River counties aren't, but most of the rest of the state is. Yes, I -- that's up to the governor and what they decide. I think there should be a statewide mask mandate, but that's not in the cards apparently because the governor tries to do that and he actually -- some people filed -- some right-wing Republicans filed articles of impeachment against him when he tried -- and he's a Republican trying to do stuff. I hope we go back right after the election with the election in the rearview mirror, as I hope it is, soon after the election and get serious about doing this. If not, when the Democrats take over in January, we will do a package for public education and for local governments and for small business and for unemployed workers and to prevent evictions and mass evictions. So I'm hopeful we can -- that McConnell will do something in November and December, that the president will settle down and play ball and actually get serious about negotiations. If not, we'll do something bigger in January.
HARLOW: That's a long ways for a lot of folks from now.
BROWN: That's waiting too long, of course.
HARLOW: Let --
BROWN: I mean we should have been doing this in August. Of course.
HARLOW: Senator, let me ask you about fracking. It's a big issue for your state. It's a big job creator for your state. It's not totally clear where Joe Biden stands on fracking. One thing that is clear is that there would be fewer fracking jobs under a Biden administration than under another Trump administration.
You said in 2012 about fracking, it's a lot of jobs, it's a lot of prosperity, though you did note the environmental and health concerns. But you know how many jobs are tied to it in Ohio. Though you did note the environmental and health concerns. But you know how many jobs are tied to it in Ohio. And I just wondered if you're concerned some of your constituents may lose those jobs under a Biden administration.
BROWN: Well, I said that in 2012 when there were a lot more fracking jobs. We've seen what these companies do. They come in mostly Eastern Ohio, fairly sparsely, fairly -- not densely populated, come in Eastern Ohio. They hire many, many people from Oklahoma and Texas. You could -- when I went out to the fields you saw mostly license plates from out of state. They work for a while, then they're gone and they leave behind an incomplete infrastructure, shall we say, widened roads that we don't have, the state didn't tax at the well head the way they should have. So state and local governments could get revenues to build what they needed to build. And there just aren't that many jobs in fracking or, unfortunately, even coal in Ohio now. So it's a different very place for me a decade ago. And this president has done nothing. He always talk, he cares nothing about climate change, he ignores it, he doesn't buy the science. And then he's done really nothing about these jobs in energy in Eastern Ohio. So things are worse than they were, no help to this president, and we've obviously got to be more serious about climate issues.
