So much for competition. ABC’s White House correspondent Cecila Vega fumed on Thursday that the President might actually attack the “fair,” “straight shooter” debate moderator from NBC, Kristen Welker.
The outraged Vega huffed, “Working the ref before the game has even started.... I worked with Kristen Welker in covering this president from the beginning, I covered Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016 with her. She is nothing but a straight shooter, among the most thorough and fair journalists I know. She’s also a great friend.”
She then attacked Trump as a racist: “But, this, George, has been a pattern. The President has repeatedly reserved his most below the belt attacks for particularly women journalists of color. We have seen this time and time again, and that is what he is doing again ahead of this debate this evening.”
She the pretended to offer campaign advice to the Republican: “Attacks like this on someone like Kristen Welker are not going to help him win over the suburban women that he needs to win.”
Newsflash: ABC does not want to help Trump win reelection.
Over on NBC, former Obama adviser David Plouffe also pretended to offer advice: “And it'll be interesting because I don't think the Trump brain trust will be in the political hall of fame. But they're telling him not to spend the whole debate on Hunter Biden. ‘Don't attack Kristen Welker.’”
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Check out the MRC's Geoff Dickens for more on Welker.
ABC pre-debate coverage
10/22/2020
8:06 p.m. EasternGEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: On that muting of the mics, we know during the first answers for each candidate, the other candidate's mic will be muted. I want to bring in our senior White House correspondent Cecilia Vega. Cecilia, your colleague on the White House beat from NBC, Kristen Welker, going to be the moderator tonight. President Trump has already been playing the refs, attacking her nearly every day.
CECILIA VEGA: Working the ref before the game has even started. George, I will say, I worked with Kristen Welker in covering this president from the beginning, I covered Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016 with her. She is nothing but a straight shooter, among the most thorough and fair journalists I know. She’s also a great friend. And I know that is what she’s going to bring those traits to this stage tonight.
But, this, George, has been a pattern. The President has repeatedly reserved his most below the belt attacks for particularly women journalists of color. We have seen this time and time again, and that is what he is doing again ahead of this debate this evening. And I got to say, this is not what aides, even his own aides want to see. They want to see him focus. Attacks like this on someone like Kristen Welker are not going to help him win over the suburban women that he needs to win, that he is losing in the suburbs like Philly. We just pulled the numbers. He's behind 38 percentage points at this point to Joe Biden. A strategy like this not going to help tonight.
