Sunday night after simulcasting a Georgia senatorial debate between Senator Kelly Loeffler ( R) and radical liberal Raphael Warnock (D), CNN was in all-out hate mode against Loeffler, declaring that she was a Republican “avatar,” a real-life “jukebox,” “robotic,” and too wealthy to understand Americans struggling during the coronavirus pandemic.
Put simply, ask yourself what CNN’s reaction would have been if these things were said about a female Democrat on Fox News. But because Loeffler’s a Republican, Zuckerville saw no problem with the ugly rhetoric.
Correspondent Ryan Nobles received the pole position from Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer, merely restating Loeffler’s lines of attack against Warnock before dismissing it because “the most glaring thing” and takeaway should be Loeffler repeatedly declining to state President Trump lost the election.
CNN Politics reporter Chris Cillizza made it clear that he was super cereal, boasting that “Warnock was better as a debater” and “at least tried to answer the questions” even though he wouldn’t answer whether he’d support packing the Supreme Court.
Taking aim at Loeffler, Cillizza bemoaned that she didn’t talk that much about Georgia and “didn’t” answer moderator questions because “[e]very answer was one of three things: Radical liberal Raphael Warnock as Ryan pointed out, socialism, or I have lived the American dream.”
Kamala Harris shopping buddy and CNN Politics reporter Maeve Reston didn’t mince words, calling Loeffler “almost robotic sometimes in her answers” by “[j]ust sort of repeating the same phrases and again, that's been the consistent criticism of her all the way along.”
Reston also took issue with Loeffer’s emphasis on her blue collar roots and declared her unable to emphasize with struggling Americans:
[B]ut I think that she really had a hard time sort of explaining why — why they should get out for her. You heard her talk a little bit more about her biography, the fact that she grew up on a farm and she worked in the fields and that she was a waitress, but she didn't find any way to connect that to the struggles that many Americans are facing right now. She's really had a hard time sort of filling out her biography and what she will do for them and I think that was one of the big issues that she had tonight, Wolf.
So again, there was nothing even close to a semblance of criticism for anything Warnock said. Whether it be his refusal to denounce Marxism, fully answer what took place when he interfered in a child abuse investigation, or give a position on court-packing, Zuckerville stuck to its Loeffler-hating narrative so as not to draw the ire of boss Jeff Zucker.
An ardent lefty masquerading as a journalist, senior political analyst Ron Brownstein insisted Reston didn’t go far enough because Loeffler gave “as robotic a performance as you are ever going to see in a debate.”
“It was — she almost made herself into like a — a human avatar of Republican talking points, but all of them were specifically targeted over and over again. It kind of, you know, a pinpointing the anxieties of the Trump base, the non-urban, non-college in particular Trump base,” he added.
Brownstein spoke glowingly of Warnock, praising him for “mak[ing] it ordinary person versus rich person who is only looking out for themselves” while Loeffler’s strategy was to paint the race as “on a left-right continuum.”
He went on to throw one more personal attack at Loeffler: “[S]he was not really engaging with anything that anyone said. It was almost as if you were putting coins in a jukebox and getting, you know, A4 socialism, A6 radical liberal Raphael Warnock.”
Moments later, Reston hit Loeffer for having engaged in “the definition of a dodge” by refusing to denounce President Trump’s attacks on Governor Brian Kemp (R) (so the person who appointed her).
On that point, the Vice President-elect’s pal said such a refusal to sufficiently attack Trump was “not a good moment for her.”
Before Brownstein closed out the segment, Cillizza had more nonsense to unspool (click “expand”):
I just wanted to add, just to accentuate Maeve's point. This shows why Donald Trump makes it harder on Republicans. It's a hard enough question to say, do you think the election was rigged, because the President who is of your party, says it is, even though there's no evidence that it was. But it's even harder when the President is attacking the Republican governor and the Republican secretary of state in this state, that Kelly Loeffler has to say, well, yes, Brian Kemp did appoint me against Donald Trump's wishes, I might add. He wanted Doug Collins who she bested in the primary. It's so hard to thread that needle.
It's impossible to look anything but like you're waffling because the honest answer is, there's no answer for Kelly Loeffler to give to that question because as Ron noted, she is making a 100 percent hardcore appeal to the Trump base. She's not trying to reach out to the middle. The Trump base, the Trump base, the Trump base and the only way you can do that is not to say, yes, well, maybe that Brian Kemp is doing what he should be doing, which is upholding the law and protecting democracy, to Maeve's point. It's just an impossible place that he's putting these candidates on which the Senate majority relies in.
These Loeffler attacks were made possible thanks to CNN advertisers such as Dove and Uber Eats. Follow the post to the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant CNN transcript from December 6, click “expand.”
CNN’s The Situation Room
December 6, 2020
7:57 p.m. EasternWOLF BLITZER: We just watched a debate between Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and her opponent, Reverend Raphael Warnock in the battle for one of two open Senate seats in the State of Georgia. The outcome will shape the course of our government. A Republican win would leave a Senate GOP majority in place to check an incoming President Biden and his administration and two Democratic wins on the other hand, would give Biden an open road with his party's power in the Senate and the House, the Democrats would be the majority in both. [INTRODUCES PANEL] And everyone, I want to get all your reaction to what we just heard over the past hour. Ryan, let me start with you. You are there on the scene. Was this what we anticipated?
RYAN NOBLES: It really was, Wolf. We expected Kelly Loeffler to engage in very specific attacks on Raphael Warnock. She obviously called him a radical liberal multiple times, essentially, every single time she had an opportunity to address him. That falls directly in line with their campaign messaging from the very beginning. This is how they've attempted to frame Warnock and his campaign and it's also not a surprise that she went after his sermons and some of the more controversial things that he has said from the pulpit of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. We also knew that that would be a line of attack and you know, I think, from an effective standpoint, and the fact that she was able to continue to go back to that messaging over and over again, I think you're going to see Republicans in the National Republican Senate Committee attempt to amplify those attacks in the days and weeks to come. But I think when you take a step back from what we saw here tonight, perhaps the most glaring thing that many — of anybody that watched this debate will be left with is the fact that when she was asked directly at least five, six, maybe seven different times whether or not she agrees that President Donald Trump lost the presidential election, Kelly Loeffler just refused to answer that question. She would then move on to the stock answer that she had related to kind of dancing around this issue of election discrepancies and fraud and that it needs to be looked into and that the President has every right to look into it. But she was asked, I think by almost every single person involved in moderating this debate directly, did President Trump win or lose? And she just did not answer the question and I think that more than anything reflects this tightrope that the Republican candidates are walking here in Georgia. You know, they don't necessarily — it's not necessarily good for them to engage fully in these conspiracy theories and these baseless claims that President Trump is making about this election, but at the same time, they cannot alienate Trump voters. And we saw Kelly Loeffler at least attempt to dance on that tightrope tonight whether or not she was able to hang on, we might not know the answer till — until January 5th, but I think that's going to be kind of the lasting impression that many people have about this debate here tonight, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, that's a good point and, Chris, I want to get your take on what we just saw in this debate. First of all, are you ready to tell us who you think did a better job who won?
CHRIS CILLIZZA: Okay. I think Raphael Warnock was better as a debater, Wolf, in that I think he — largely, though, on the Supreme Court — making the Supreme Court larger, he also clearly dodged. But he at least tried to answer the questions that my friend Greg Bluestein and others were — were asking of him. Kelly Loeffler didn't. Every answer was one of three things. Radical liberal Raphael Warnock as Ryan pointed out, socialism, or I have lived the American dream. Now that can work, particularly if your strategy with Kelly Loeffler is to remind the base of the Republican Party what they are afraid of as it connects to Warnock. So I don't want to say she lost. In terms of a pure debate, Raphael Warnock, I thought, was better. But they had different missions. He wanted to present himself as, look, I'm not a scary, national liberal. I'm a guy who's a preacher. I'm a guy who — you know, I thought the end was quite good about I got up and dawn, it was dark. My dad woke me up, the light was coming. Her mission was entirely different. Totally nationalize the race. Make the race about Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and yes, sort of Raphael Warnock, too. But really that this is a takeover of socialism and it's on the march and the only way that you can stop it is by voting for Kelly Loeffler. She didn't really talk that much about what she did for the state other than say I have Georgia on my mind at all times.
BLITZER: Yeah. She did have her talking points as she repeated and repeated and repeated those points over and over again. Maeve, we've been discussing how President Trump's messages of a so-called rigged election — and it wasn't a rigged election — could actually deter supporters from voting in the Georgia runoff elections on January 5th. Did she do enough tonight, do you think, to motivate those Trump supporters who might be on the fence, who might be reluctant to go bother and vote?
MAEVE RESTON: Well, I think to your point just now, Wolf, you know, she sounded almost robotic sometimes in her answers. Just sort of repeating the same phrases. And again, that's been the consistent criticism of her all the way along. But she did drive home the point that there are a lot of things at stake with control of the Senate. She mentioned obviously her abortion views. The fears that is some have that there will be court packing to try to minimize the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, so she really did try to make those arguments that will be most important to those base voters that she needs to get to the polls this time, but I think that she really had a hard time sort of explaining why — why they should get out for her. You heard her talk a little bit more about her biography, the fact that she grew up on a farm and she worked in the fields and that she was a waitress, but she didn't find any way to connect that to the struggles that many Americans are facing right now. She's really had a hard time sort of filling out her biography and what she will do for them and I think that was one of the big issues that she had tonight, Wolf.
BLITZER: You know, and that's an important point as well. You know, Ron, in a recent article that you wrote for CNN, you said that the President has succeeded in silencing dissent across the Republican Party.
RON BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
BLITZER: But I want you to listen to how Senator Loeffler responded tonight when she was asked if she believes President Trump's claims that the election were rigged. Listen to this.
[DEBATE CLIP]
BLITZER: Okay, Ron, so how did that response, and we heard that several times from her during the course of the past hour. How do you think that response will play?
BROWNSTEIN: It's really very revealing, Wolf and it is why it is a mistake to assume that all of these Republicans are falling in line with President Trump's unfounded claims of fraud only because they are afraid of him. They are falling in line also because like Kelly Loeffler, they have invested in a strategy that requires massive turnout among his voters. You can take the almost out of what Maeve said. That was about as robotic a performance as you are ever going to see in a debate. It was — she almost made herself into like a — a human avatar of Republican talking points, but all of them were specifically targeted over and over again. It kind of, you know, a pinpointing the anxieties of the Trump base, the non-urban, non-college in particular Trump base. I mean, that performance did not say she was someone hoping to turn around the Republican erosion in Cobb and Gwinnett Counties outside of Atlanta and then from Warnock, you saw a completely different strategy. If Loeffler wanted to kind of separate this on a left-right continuum, he wanted to make it ordinary person versus rich person who is only looking out for themselves. He was basically saying, I am one of you and she is not and that I think was — you know, they were cutting through the electorate at a completely different axis in this debate. And that maybe one reason why it felt like they were talking past each other. The other reason, of course, was that she was not really engaging with anything that anyone said. It was almost as if you were putting coins in a jukebox and getting, you know, A4 socialism, A6 radical liberal Raphael Warnock.
BLITZER: Yeah. We kept hearing that over and over again and, Maeve, we know that President Trump has publicly trashed Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp. Privately, he's gone even further in really just saying rather awful things about him. The issue, of course, the state election system. He even called Kemp yesterday trying to pressure him to help overturn the former vice president's win in the state. I want you to hear how Loeffler responded when asked specifically about President Trump's criticism of her own Republican governor who appointed her to the U.S. Senate.
[DEBATE CLIP]
BLITZER: All right, Maeve. What did you think?
RESTON: So I think that's the definition of a dodge. But, you know, obviously, that was a really tough question for her because the voters that she needs to turn out are those Trump voters, but really, it's been these Republican state leaders who have ended up being sort of the heroes in upholding democracy in this country and you saw Governor Kemp yesterday hold the line and say that he wasn't going to give in to the demands that President Trump is making here and also said that it wasn't in his authority to do some of the things that President Trump is asking him to do. So I think that will be another issue that people will watch her answer and say, you know what, this is sort of a question that would have allowed her to show authenticity. And instead she dodged. So not a good moment for her, Wolf, in that debate.
BLITZER: Yes, you know and —
CILLIZZA: I just —
BLITZER: — yeah, go ahead. Go.
CILLIZZA: — I just wanted to add, just to accentuate Maeve's point. This shows why Donald Trump makes it harder on Republicans. It's a hard enough question to say, do you think the election was rigged, because the President who is of your party, says it is, even though there's no evidence that it was. But it's even harder when the President is attacking the Republican governor and the Republican secretary of state in this state, that Kelly Loeffler has to say, well, yes, Brian Kemp did appoint me against Donald Trump's wishes, I might add. He wanted Doug Collins who she bested in the primary. It's so hard to thread that needle. It's impossible to look anything but like you're waffling because the honest answer is, there's no answer for Kelly Loeffler to give to that question because as Ron noted, she is making a 100 percent hardcore appeal to the Trump base. She's not trying to reach out to the middle. The Trump base, the Trump base, the Trump base and the only way you can do that is not to say, yes, well, maybe that Brian Kemp is doing what he should be doing, which is upholding the law and protecting democracy, to Maeve's point. It's just an impossible place that he's putting these candidates on which the Senate majority relies in.
BLITZER: You know, Ron, the poll — I saw a poll the other day in Georgia. It shows a very, very close contest on both — for both of these two Senate seats on January 5th. You do a lot of work looking at these polls. It is very close right now. Could go either way, right?
BROWNSTEIN: Right. It clearly is — these are going to be — these are going to go down to the wire. It's very hard to poll for a special election like this in terms of who turns out. I think it's very hard for pollsters to predict. The reality is, Wolf, Democrats have not elected a senator in Georgia since 2000. The last senator they elected was Zell Miller, who you covered, that I covered, a very conservative former governor who was so conservative he ended up endorsing George W. Bush at the 2004 Republican convention, so the fact that Senate control is coming down to Georgia, while it is an evolving state, is an indication — is a reflection of the core problem Democrats have, more states lean Republican than Democratic at the presidential level, and it's very hard for either side to win Senate seats excepts in the states that they usually win in the presidential contest. Having said that, the polling shows that these races are within reach for Democrats and while Republicans like Mike Pence and — they welcomed Vice President Pence and President Trump in effect to nationalize the race, Democrats face a much tougher choice about the extent to which they allow this to become a referendum on which side you want to control the Senate. It's still not clear to me that there's a safe majority in Georgia for the Democratic side of that proposition.
