It was one of those moments, folks, when you realize that these quotes will be recycled for years to come at NewsBusters. Without a doubt, it felt reminiscent of Chris Matthew’s thrill up his leg.
On Wednesday’s Situation Room, CNN analysts, hosts, and reporters debased themselves and reminded us of their embarrassing, shameless, sophomoric, and unserious operation with their reactions to Kamala Harris’s “beautiful,” “conversational,” “fantastic,” and “warm” speech that sounded like it was delivered “from the mountaintop.”
With so many embarrassing quotes, NewsBusters presents the roughly 30 minutes between the Biden-Harris campaign event and President Trump’s coronavirus press conference as a Notable Quotables-style package.
Speech Signaled a ‘Passing of the Torch’ with a Speech ‘From the Mountaintop’
“I think what we saw here today was the passing of the torch from the Obama/Biden coalition to what Democrats hope will be the Biden/Harris coalition....So we have heard these words, but from Senator Harris, it's an entirely different platform for her. It's as though she was saying them from the mountain top as opposed to, you know, just a high school gymnasium there and I think that the ease in which they worked together was very apparent. This is why he picked her.”
— Senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny, 5:48 p.m. Eastern.
Harris ‘Nailed It,’ Giving ‘A Fantastic Speech’ for ‘One of’ Her ‘Finest Performances’
“I thought Kamala Harris gave a fantastic speech. She absolutely nailed it. I think this is one of the finest performances I've seen her deliver in terms of a speech. She has tremendous range as a speaker. There are times when she's incredibly warm and funny and light. She's talking about spending time with her nieces and her step-kids, being called Mamala, cooking dinner.”
— Senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson, 5:35 p.m. Eastern.
‘Extraordinary’ Kamala Was Like ‘Medicine’ Showing Us ‘Somebody Cares’
“[I]t’s medicine right now. People need to feel that somebody gets them and that somebody cares and I think that she was able to deliver that...[L]ook at the heart that she shows. Look at what got revealed today. If that continues, I think that it's going to be harder and harder to paint her into some negative corner. I think she did an extraordinary job today.”
— Political commentator Van Jones, 5:46 p.m. Eastern.
Biden, Harris Were ‘Extremely Strong,’ ‘Powerful,’ ‘Blew Me Way’
“I mean, this — these were two extremely strong, pointed speeches from the presumptive nominees of the Democratic Party.”
— Chief political correspondent Dana Bash, 5:31 p.m. Eastern.
“Well, I think she gave a very powerful speech and if there is any doubt that Kamala Harris is not going to be able to go on the attack as vice presidential candidates usually do, that was erased today.”
— Chief political analyst Gloria Borger, 5:33 p.m. Eastern.
“[I]t was a beautiful speech. Both of them, they strengthen each other. They're — they’re — they’re both steadier together. They're both stronger together. That was such a beautiful thing to see. I think if you're going to give a headline today it would be ‘Hope Reborn.’ That’s what I felt. Hope reborn. You just haven't heard people talking that way about the country and cutting through and seeming authentic...[T]hey blew me away. Both of them were stronger today than I've seen them in a very long time, if ever.”
— Jones, 5:43 p.m. Eastern.
Kamala’s Claim Trump Doesn’t Care About Virus Is Backed Up by ‘CNN Reporting’
“[I]t was just 24 hours ago that, in this room, the President was going after Kamala Harris, saying that she was disrespectful, calling her a nasty person, he said, disrespectful to Justice Kavanaugh that he was referencing and today the tables were turned and it was her turn to go after him and criticize him and she did that by going after the response to the pandemic sweeping the nation, saying that he failed to listen to the science from the start, from the experts about this. He failed to take the virus seriously from the beginning, something that CNN reporting and other reporting shows extensively.”
— White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins, 5:51 p.m. Eastern.
She Was So ‘Conversational,’ ‘Relaxed’ in Dishing ‘Blistering Lines of Attack’
“We’ll also, I mean , we've seen her give speeches before. There was a relaxed quality to her while — and — and delivering, you know, some blistering lines of attack. But also not doing it — I mean, you know, the President and Joe Biden mentioned this, you know, called her nasty already. There was nothing nasty at all the way she delivered some very cutting lines.”
— AC360 host Anderson Cooper, 5:38 p.m. Eastern.
“The intimacy of this kind of campaigning, it's really unlike anything we have seen and it is something that I do think plays to a strength that — that — that she has just in the box of the television, the box of an online Zoom call or what — however — whatever the medium is. There is an intimacy to it that she does, I don't know if it's a generational thing, but she is able to punch through and yet do it in a way that is very seeming relaxed and conversational.”
— Cooper, 5:45 p.m. Eastern.
Trump Must Be ‘Nervous’ After Hearing Her, Realizing ‘He’s Not in a Great Position’
Henderson: I thought today she really did a fantastic job and I'm sure Donald Trump is watching this and — and he's nervous about the presentation that we here from Kamala Harris.
Cooper: Joined by David Chalian. David, do you think Donald Trump is nervous?
Political director David Chalian: Well, I think Donald Trump is nervous irrespective of Kamala Harris and her skillset on display today certainly isn't going to alleviate any of that nerves. He's not in a great position right now heading into this home stretch of this campaign.
— 5:39 p.m. Eastern.
Harris Was ‘Fabulous,’ ‘Tremendous,’ Gave America the ‘Complete Package’
“She was, I thought, fabulous in this speech...I thought about the real caricature that Donald Trump is going to try to offer as her, right, essentially say that she is a black radical who wants to destroy the kind of white American way of life and, you know, overrun the suburbs with criminals. That's going to be really hard when you see her there with this sort of winsome appearance. There she is in — in some sort of a sensible blue suit and pearls and sensible heels. So I think they've got a realtime on their hands in terms of what they’re going to try to do to her. It's going to be so hard because she is so skilled and she, I think, is going to connect very well in this medium of television cause this is the way that she’s going to be presented....I thought this was a tremendous effort by her. You know, we’ve seen, I think, in Kamala Harris, someone who can hit a home run and then maybe a couple of singles here and there. You know, as an athlete you might describe hers somebody who is somewhat streaky, but here I thought if this is how she is going to present herself over these next 80 days or so, I think this was a tremendous effort out of the gate in....A real, I think, complete package in terms of her speaking ability and presenting a real fulsome version of herself and her story.”
— Henderson, 5:36 p.m. Eastern.
It Was ‘Incredibly Beautiful’ How She ‘Humanized’ Biden, Showed She ‘Loves People’
“But I think Kamala Harris did something incredibly beautiful. She was able to talk about his son in a way that humanized herself, that humanized Beau, and humanized Joe Biden in a way that I think people have kind of lost track of sometimes...The intimacy of that space allowed her to come in a different register and that was the real Kamala. That's the Kamala that I've known for 20 years. That's the Kamala that cares about real people. She's comfortable in her own skin. She loves people, it shows and I thought, listen. Taking away the rallies from [Trump], I think makes them even harder to beat because they get a chance to speak in such a heartful [sic] and intimate way.”
— Jones, 5:43 p.m. Eastern.
Marveling at the ‘Lightness to Her’ in Prosecuting Trump to American Jurors
“I mean, there was a lightness to her as she was delivering, as you said this case against Donald Trump and listen, this is what she is trained to do, present a case and connect with a jury, and — and — and convince a jury and there you saw I think those prosecutorial skills very much on display.”
— Henderson, 5:38 p.m. Eastern.
Biden/Harris Event ‘Met the Moment’ on the Anniversary of Charlottesville
“I heard so many speeches during the primary campaign from Joe Biden about the grave nature of the problems facing the country even before coronavirus. That was true again today, but it was laced with more optimism than I think we have heard and he boiled it down in the word ‘possibilities.’ Joe Biden said that our ticket represents possibilities. So there was just a sense of optimism. That is a needle that Democrats know they need to thread because this has been a pretty serious grave and, you know, important and sad moment for the country....Kamala Harris was not chosen to be an attack dog. She was chosen as a governing partner, but she plays that role incredibly well....I think it met the moment. This is a serious time and of course, it’s the third anniversary of Charlottesville. It’s the reason that Joe Biden got into this race after all and it makes perfect sense that he introduced his running mate.”
— Zeleny, 5:49 p.m. Eastern.
Due to CNN’s live, rolling coverage of the Biden/Harris event and the President’s press conference, there wasn’t a commercial break during the 5:00 p.m. Eastern hour. That said, go here to check out the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
