With the Georgia Senate races wrapping up on Tuesday, CNN decided to do some PR for Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock. On Saturday’s CNN Newsroom, anchor Fredricka Whitfield brought on Warnock to dismiss attacks on Warnock as taking him “out of context” and to portray the “man of the cloth” as being too good of a Christian to fire back at his opponents.
Whitfield began the propaganda session by labeling all attacks by Republicans on Warnock as “out of context”:
There’s been a clear distinction in the styles and you have been the target of a lot of negative campaigning involving, you know, taking some of your own words and sermons out of context which means you had to spend a lot of time explaining your intent, your focus.
The context almost certainly does not matter when it comes to running a camp that practiced child abuse, driving over one’s wife with a car, working at a church which hosted Fidel Castro, and labeling Fidel Castro’s legacy as “complex.” If Whitfield was an actual journalist and not a Democratic hack, she would ask Warnock about these accusations and not help his campaign by dismissing them.
Instead, she wasn't fact-checking Warnock, she was feeling his pain:
WHITFIELD: I wonder what this has been like for you personally. I mean, you're a man of the cloth and -- and how the expectations would be that you are using words to describe even your opponents or dissenters using uplifting words. I wonder if this has been very difficult, a little prickly for you to have to respond to your critics. Some of whom, I mean, you know, Senator Loeffler, who have called you, you know, a radical liberal, have accused you of trying to push an agenda that would be called socialism. Has this been difficult for you to respond to the criticism but at the same time, try to defer from using ugly language against your opponents?
Warnock's only used uplifting words? Fact check: False.
He's had no problem using “ugly language” to describe those who he does not like throughout his time in the public spotlight. He labeled Republicans as “gangsters” and “thugs” and accused them of “child killing” simply for lowering taxes. He has a track record of anti-Semitism, and has even called Israeli soldiers “birds of prey” and compared Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to segregationist George Wallace. He has also claimed that Americans cannot “serve God and the military.” Too bad Whitfield is too much of a Democratic shill to ask him about such statements.
Whitfield’s summary dismissal of Warnock’s critics enabled him to compare himself to MLK and his opponent, Senator Kelly Loeffler, to the racists who opposed him:
And so I'm not concerned about Kelly Loeffler. She can call me whatever she wants. And many of the same names that she’s been calling me, they called my heroes by those names, Martin Luther King Jr and the folks that I got to know right in Atlanta who worked alongside him, C.T. Vivian, John Lewis, Andrew Young.
It is also not inaccurate to label Warnock as a socialist. He has repeatedly endorsed Marxism in his writings and in a debate with Loeffler he refused to denounce both Marxism and socialism. It seems like Whitfield is more interested in protecting Warnock than ascertaining the truth about his political leanings.
Also, what a “man of the cloth” he is as an abortion advocate! Warnock has even been condemned for his abortion stance by other black pastors. Additionally, Warnock seems to fundamentally misunderstand the Bible, as he has labeled Jesus a “Palestinian” on multiple occasions.
But Whitfield continued to praise Warnock for allegedly being too good of a Christian to stoop down to the level of his evil Republican opponents:
It sounds like you're saying even, you know, you've led Ebenezer Church for some 15 years, even if you are elected Senator, you leave the church, but the church doesn't leave you.
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Read the full January 2nd transcript here:
CNN Newsroom with Fredricka Whitfield
1/2/21
2:32:37 PM
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD: These have been very aggressive races. We're -- we’re looking at something like $500 million plus in television ad spending involving all of the campaigns. There’s been a -- a clear distinction in the styles and you have been the target of a lot of negative campaigning involving, you know, taking some of your own words and sermons out of context which means you had to spend a lot of time explaining your intent, your focus. Do you believe that has cost you votes?
REVEREND RAPHAEL WARNOCK (DEMOCRATIC GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE): Listen, I'm very clear that this is not about me. I have committed my whole life to service. I have been focused on the people that I see in my church and across the community. Folks who are wondering why what's going on in Washington doesn't work for them. And so I'm not concerned about Kelly Loeffler. She can call me whatever she wants. And many of the same names that she’s been calling me, they called my heroes by those names, Martin Luther King Jr and the folks that I got to know right in Atlanta who worked alongside him, C.T. Vivian, John Lewis, Andrew Young. And so I'm going to be focused on the fact that people need health care. They need COVID-19 relief. I think it's interesting that Kelly Loeffler has been in the Senate for ten months and she hasn't even bothered to make a case for why the people of Georgia should elect her. She was appointed. It's clear the people of Georgia are disappointed and she's sounding more and more desperate every day in her rhetoric because she's focused on herself. And so here's the clear choice of people in Georgia: you -- you can help her to help herself or you can help me to help you. And I'm deeply honored that this kid who grew up in public housing, one of 12 children in my family, is now running for the U.S. Senate against the wealthiest member of Congress. It means that the American dream and promise is very much alive. It's just slipping away from too many people. And I hope to go to the Senate to stand up for ordinary people.
WARNOCK: I -- I think that the American people and the people of Georgia have had enough with the kind of negative politics. They've had enough of the politics of division and distraction and distortion. And one thing that I was very clear about when I got into this race is that it was not going to change who I am at my core. I -- I am a Matthew 25 Christian. I believe the words of Jesus when he said that they will come before the master and-- and he will say, I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was sick, I was in prison and you came to visit me and someone asked, well when were you hungry? When were you thirsty? When were you naked? When were you a stranger, Lord? When were you in prison or sick? He said in as much as you have done to the least of these, you've done it also unto me. That is the -- the values, those are the principles that guide me in my work and it is that kind of sensibility that I hope to bring to the United States Senate. You know, I've had the honor of being the pastor to John Lewis. John Lewis was the conscience of the Congress. He went to Congress late in life but Congress didn't shape him. He brought the same commitment that he had taken in the civil rights movement, that same courage that took him across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. He brought that into the great debates in the Congress. If the Congress needed someone to speak to its conscience, I think the Senate needs someone to speak to its soul. And so I'm not going to be dragged down into the mud. Martin Luther King Sr. said no one can drag me as so low as to hate them. And so I will continue to put the people at the center of the conversation. The people that I'm running into. I was in Comfort, Georgia, a few weeks ago. Those folks are worried because their -- their hospital just closed in the middle of a pandemic and too often today, the politics have become about the politicians. We have a generation of professional politicians who are so focused on the next election that they're not focused on the next generation. I think the people of Georgia deserve someone who will be thinking about them.
WHITFIELD: It sounds like you're saying even, you know, you've led Ebenezer Church for some 15 years, even if you are elected Senator, you leave the church but the church doesn't leave you.
