On Wednesday night, CNN's Jubilee-style town hall with Texas Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico turned out to be little more than a 90-minute infomercial for his campaign, with Talarico facing little or no pushback from CNN. Afterwards, it continued on CNN's The Source with Kaitlan Collins which featured Talarico being compared to Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, before some severe sanity was interjected.
Collins went to former Clinton advisor and CNN Commentator Paul Begala first, and after claiming Talarico as a friend who he has known for years, he went right to placing his pal on a political pedestal.
BEGALA: You know what I was thinking of? I was thinking of July 27th, 2004, FleetCenter, Boston, Massachusetts. A skinny state legislator with a funny name (Barack Obama) that nobody had ever heard of, gave the best speech I have ever heard at a convention, the best introduction to the nation I've ever seen.
These people in that -- in Fort Worth, digging it 22 years from now, can say, man, I was there when James Talarico burst on the national scene.... He's authentic and he's engaging, he's intelligent, empathetic. But it was strategic.
And Begala was just getting started.
BEGALA: This was a heat-seeking missile at Republican voters who've supported John Cornyn but don't like Ken Paxton and at independent-leaning Republicans....He's reaching them with ideas and positive and moderate positions. I just thought it was brilliant.
After some pro Talarico talking points from CNN's Xochitl Hinojosa, whose sister Gina happens to running against Texas Governor Greg Abbott, CNN's Shermichael Singleton, who made some necessary points.
SINGLETON: Look, he's a talented guy, I'll give him that. But he pretended to be a moderate tonight. Here's a guy who was asked about school choice by one of the questioners, and he said it was essentially a scheme by billionaires outside of the State of Texas. Well, tell that to the mother and the father who would like to remove their child from a bad school system....
Several months ago, his campaign said, we have to remove ICE, tear it down, something new, whatever that new thing is. Apparently, they didn't know then. He doesn't know now. And he said, Well, that's no longer my position. I think we need to reform ICE because now I'm a moderate Democrat who believe we need to have some type of immigration reform. That's not what he said several months ago.
It wasn't long before Begala would weigh in once again, this time comparing his buddy to President Clinton.
BEGALA: Look what he's doing here, Kaitlan-- The town hall ended 10 minutes ago. He's still there. He's talking to people one on one. That's reminiscent. I already compared to Obama. That's reminiscent of my old boss, Bill Clinton.
Mercifully, Collins gave former Trump Campaign Advisor, CNN's David Urban his shot, and it was worth the wait.
URBAN: Oh, Kaitlan, Kaitlan, Kaitlan. Listen, the unchecked adulation of Paul Begala is almost too much for me to stomach. I love Paul. Maybe -- Paul should run for senator or governor. He's better--
COLLINS: He'd be good at it.
URBAN: --way better than James Talarico and way more like -- and way more likable.
Then it was on to Talarico's unchallenged flip flops.
URBAN: Listen, I heard a guy get up there and try to have it both ways. Right? He's, I support oil and gas. He introduced the piece of legislation in the Texas House, excuse me, the Texas Legislature to ban oil and gas.
He's talking about the Bible. I think the Bible's -- it's silent on abortion. Earlier in the year, he said the Bible gives its explicit instructions how to perform abortions.
He dodged, he weaved, he ducked, he didn't answer. Listen, no one asked a tough question on guns. It's the State of Texas. Like, here's position on guns.
Next, while praising CNN's presentation of the town hall, he left plenty of room for doubt.
URBAN: I think some people came prepared. Listen, I loved the format. Kudos to CNN for putting it on. And look, I give him credit for showing up and doing it. But he -- nobody laid a glove on him. I wish there was somebody there who really pushed hard and asked him on some of these questions.
But there was nobody to do that. Surprisingly, the Collins panel was evenly divided, two Democrats and two Republicans. Maybe CNN felt it had to follow up the one-sided farse with the appearance of fairness.
