A retired farmer and Iowa independent confronted former Vice President Joe Biden while on his so-called “no malarkey” campaign tour of the state Thursday, calling him out for his age and son’s dubious business dealings in Ukraine. The former Vice President was obviously triggered when he unloaded on the Iowan (despite being older than him), raising his voice and appearing to call the man “fat.” Almost unbelievably, the CBS Evening News lauded Biden by suggesting he was acting like a “prizefighter.”
During the opening tease at the top of the program, anchor Norah O’Donnell built hype by suggesting the voter was using “fighting words”:
O’DONNELL: Fighting words: Joe Biden faces off with a voter.
JOE BIDEN: You're a damn liar, man. [Transition] Get your words straight, Jack.
O’DONNELL: What that man said that made the former Vice President so mad.
O’Donnell’s enthusiasm persisted when the full report rolled around as she described how “Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden went at it with a voter who accused him of sending his son Hunter to work for a Ukrainian energy company for the family's benefit.”
“Well, the Vice President even challenged the man to a pushup contest,” she said with a big smile on her face (pictured above). “Ed O’Keefe tonight with the blow-by-blow.”
Previously, NewsBusters reported how the CBS Evening News advertised the televised impeachment hearings as something akin to a pay-per-view boxing match. Well, O’Keefe tapped into that analogy when he boasted that Biden was “pacing the floor like a prizefighter” while attacking the voter.
“Joe Biden punched back when challenged on how his son Hunter landed a lucrative position in Ukraine,” he added.
Meanwhile, on NBC Nightly News, they barely touched the heated exchange. But, on ABC’s World News Tonight, you could hear the disappointment in anchor David Muir’s voice while reporting on what Biden did. “And from Iowa tonight, Joe Biden's fiery confrontation with a voter during a town hall, calling that voter a “damn liar”, challenging him to an IQ test and a push-up contest,” he said.
ABC correspondent Linsey Davis actually cleared up the voter’s intentions by noting the voter would “vote for anyone but Trump, but still had some tough words for the former Vice President.”
Following the confrontation, the voter had more to say about Biden when he talked with the press afterward. The Washington Examiner’s Mike Brest and Emily Larsen reported that the voter refused to give his name and said: “‘[Biden] is so old, he’s senile anyhow’ and encouraged Biden to drop out of the race.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
December 5, 2019
6:31:11 p.m. Eastern [Opening Tease]NORAH O’DONNELL: Fighting words: Joe Biden faces off with a voter.
JOE BIDEN: You're a damn liar, man. [Transition] Get your words straight, Jack.
O’DONNELL: What that man said that made the former Vice President so mad.
(…)
6:40:01 p.m. Eastern
O’DONNELL: And more news from the campaign trail as things got pretty hot in Iowa. Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden went at it with a voter who accused him of sending his son Hunter to work for a Ukrainian energy company for the family's benefit. Well, the Vice President even challenged the man to a pushup contest. Ed O’Keefe tonight with the blow-by-blow.
[Cuts to video]
UNNAMED VOTER: I gotta -- I got a question I want you to answer.
ED O’KEEFE: Pacing the floor like a prizefighter, Joe Biden punched back when challenged on how his son Hunter landed a lucrative position in Ukraine.
JOE BIDEN: You're a damn liar, man. That's not true. And no one has ever said that. No one has proved that.
UNNAMED VOTER: I see it on the TV--
BIDEN: You see it on the TV?
O’KEEFE: Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma in April 2014, around the time his father was pressing the Ukrainian government to fight corruption. President Trump has spread disproven accusations of wrongdoing against them, and his concern about what the Bidens were doing is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
BIDEN: You said I set up my son to work in an oil company. Isn't that what you said? Get your words straight, Jack?
UNNAMED VOTER: That's what I read -- hear on MSNBC.
BIDEN: You don't hear that on MSNBC.
UNNAMED VOTER: The hell I didn't.
BIDEN: Look, fat -- here's the deal, here's the deal--
UNNAMED VOTER: It looks like-- it looks like you don't have any more backbone than Trump does when you're selling—
[Crowd protests]
O’KEEFE: Also today in Iowa, tough talk from New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.
(…)
