The media has been salivating over the notion that former Democrat politicians Beto O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams will likely run in 2020 for president, despite losing their respective midterm races this past Fall. On CNN Newsroom Tuesday morning, anchors Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto showed no skepticism, as their guest cheered on Abrams for announcing at South by Southwest Monday that she was seriously thinking of running for president in 2020.
After talking about former Vice President Joe Biden’s potential run, co-anchor Poppy Harlow moved on to ask CNN political analyst and writer for Time magazine Molly Ball her thoughts on Abrams’ announcement. Harlow gushed, “What sort of hole would she fill with her candidacy if she opts in that isn’t filled with a candidate so far?” Referencing Abrams’ tweet announcing 2020 was "on the table," she added, “Is there any risk here of going too fast?”
Ball agreed there was “always a risk” for new candidates, but that it was Abrams’ time to “seize her moment” for 2020:
“Sure, that's always a risk for up-and-coming candidates, but I think if you're a politician, you always want to be seizing your moment if you have one,” she gushed, adding, “You know, Stacey Abrams is ambitious and talented.” She went on to argue that Abrams’ “fresh face” and “new and compelling voice” could stand out in the field of “old white men” on the ticket:
I think what you see in these polls where no candidate besides the known quantities of Bernie and Biden, have managed to break out of the pack. What you see is these candidates don't have well-defined lanes yet. You know, when you talk about the potential lanes for candidates, there are ideological lanes, who is the most Progressive, who is the the most moderate to conservative Democrat? There are generational lanes, who's a fresh face for the party? Who represents a new and compelling voice? Who could appeal to younger voters or voters who have been turned off by the previous pillars of the Democratic establishment such as the last nominee? And then there's also demographic lanes in a party that I think is more conscious than ever of diversity and whose base is more diverse than ever. There are a lot of Democrats who would like to see an African-American woman, or just something other than the same old white men on top of the ticket. So I think there are a lot of potential openings for Stacey Abrams but I think the most -- the biggest opening for her is just that she is a very compelling candidate.
Harlow and Sciutto offered no pushback at this glowing review of Abrams, who not only lost her race, but has held the media’s sympathy over the idea that she lost her election unfairly.
Yet, we’ve seen this all before. Remember how the media treated Texas Democrat Wendy Davis as their new feminist folk hero when she ran for governor in 2014, and lost, just as Beto O’Rourke did in his Senate race? The media loves to tout far-left Democrat failures as “rising stars” even when their radical politics don’t align with the majority of Americans’ viewpoints.
