CNN’s New Day brought on ex-Congressman Joe Walsh on Friday to announce he’s dropping his bid for the Republican presidential nomination after pulling a whopping one percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses this week. Host John Berman described Walsh as an old “Tea Party Republican” even as Walsh said he’d vote for a socialist over the alleged “dictator” Donald Trump.
This makes sense, since Walsh's dire talk of "dictator" Trump is CNN's sweet spot, scratching their itch. But Walsh never got his CNN Town Hall, like every Democrat hopeful did. This underlines they never wanted to put him on TV for an hour with fellow Republicans. The questioning might have been raucous.
Berman just threw simple questions.
BERMAN: So you're out of the Republican race. What now?
WALSH: Same thing I'm going to do whatever I can to stop Trump. I think, John, this is one of those rare moments in American history -- I'm a conservative -- where conservatives and liberals, Republicans, and Democrats, independents and moderates got to come together to stop this guy. He's everything our Founding Fathers feared. So, I can't stop him in a Republican primary. But I can sure do my level best to try to stop him outside of a primary by bringing people together.
BERMAN: So, you're going to try to help elect the Democratic nominee. Is that what you're saying?
WALSH: Any Democrat! John, Donald Trump is a dictator. He's a king. He literally is the greatest threat to this country right now. Any Democrat would be better than Trump in the White House. That's not an easy thing for me to say. But that tells you how serious this moment is.
Berman asked Walsh which Democrat he would support, and he could only say he had to tell the public "your only option is a Democrat, it's not Trump, it's not the cult." At least Berman followed up with reality: "But you just said that the Republicans that you were talking to didn't want to hear it from you. So, what makes you think you could convince them?"
Well, by that standard, why would CNN put someone on, if they're this obscure and ineffective? Then "conservative" Walsh said he'd back a socialist.
BERMAN: Would you support Bernie Sanders? And I asked you, you know, you're a former Tea Party Republican, and you're saying to me that you would support Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren?
WALSH: I would rather have, John Berman, a socialist in the White House than a dictator, than a king, than Donald Trump.
Then Berman pulled out the "conservative" gaffes. "Given that you are someone and you've owned this in the past, you called Barack Obama Muslim, said a number of other things. What makes you think the Democrats want your support?"
Well, why would CNN put him on, if they didn't think he'd help the Democrats?
