Former Fox host Chris Wallace came over to CNN to be a major pillar of CNN-Plus. Oops. Now he hosts a weekend show with panels that are almost all liberal. A token Trump-distancing conservative is allowed. On Saturday, for example, they discussed CNN's daily obsession: How can Trump be defeated in November?
Wallace touted the latest liberal talking point "gaining currency among pundits, 'Trump amnesia,' the idea that a lot of people just forget all the things that happened in his four years in office." Sarah Longwell, publisher of the liberal anti-Trump website The Bulwark, suggested Trump isn't very visible right now. (He's doing more interviews than Biden!)
Then ,as our Brent Baker plucked out, regular Wallace panelist Kara Swisher, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, dropped her snark bomb:
Advice from @karaswisher on CNN’s Chris Wallace Show: “Biden has to get in there very hard and go ‘rapist, racist, fascist’ over and over and over again.” pic.twitter.com/hrPeKsaApr
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) March 9, 2024
SWISHER: In that regard, if he's [Trump's] going to be shameless, which is his greatest asset, the shamelessness of him, then Biden has to get in there very hard and go "rapist, racist, fascist," over and over and over again. And then the trials are happening at the same time. He's just had to pay -- he's just $93 million poorer right now, and just hammer it in with those three things -- "rapist, racist, fascist."
The lone conservative in the room, John McCormack of the anti-Trump website The Dispatch, replied: "But here's the thing. Voters haven't forgotten what the economy was like in 2019. They remember it. And I don't think presidents deserve credit. They get blame or credit for what happens on their watch. And voters aren't thinking, oh, well inflation is cooling. They are comparing the numbers today to the numbers four or five years ago."
McCormack was the odd man out when Wallace's panel graded Biden's State of the Union speech for style points at the top.
Kara Swisher: "A nine because I think he did what he was supposed to do. The GOP had set the bar at corpse, and therefore, he looked fantastic." (Naturally, Swisher gave Katie Britt " Less than zero. It was as if someone put into ChatGPT Stepford wife meets weird kitchen meets someone who failed at getting the lead in a high school play.")
Sarah Longwell: "So on style, I'm going to go with nine as well, but again, it's because of the low expectations."
Former NPR news anchor Lulu Garcia-Navarro, now at The New York Times: "I would do a solid eight for style. I thought he seemed forceful. He seemed energized."
McCormack broke the mold: "I'd only give him a five on style because I wasn't that impressed that he spoke quickly and loudly. I think someone pointed out that there were zero exclamation points in last year's address. There were 80 in this year's address….Actual script had 80 exclamation points this year. And on substance, as a conservative, I'd give them a three."
