On Thursday, Drew Holden of the Washington Free Beacon tipped everyone on an amazing contrast of "accountability modes" toward Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the last minutes of Inside Politics in the noon hour.
Trump has kind words for genocidal Nazi maniacs, but hey, have you seen Biden's March Madness bracket?
First, Bash interviewed Trump-despising pundit Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark, and repeated her fellow CNN host Jim Sciutto's hot quotes from his new book that former Trump chief of staff John Kelly said Trump spoke positively of Adolf Hitler in the context of whether John Kelly is the kind of Republican who can get behind their mission of re-electing Biden.
CNN 'Inside Politics' host Dana Bash promoted her colleague Jim Sciutto's quotes from John Kelly about Trump's positive comments about Hitler, an easy Q for Sarah "Big Bucks" Longwell. After a Q on a possible No Labels run for Chris Christie, she touted Biden's NCAA bracket. pic.twitter.com/cHxD54gPax
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) March 21, 2024
BASH: I mentioned John Kelly, who was the former president's chief of staff, Defense secretary James Mattis, they've been very forceful in speaking out against Donald Trump. John Kelly told Jim Sciutto even that Trump has something positive to say about Hitler he said we -- well, but Hitler did some good things. I said, well, what, and he said, well, Hitler rebuilt the economy, but what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world. I said, sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing. Is someone like him, John Kelly, a person who you can get into your new tribe as you call it?
LONGWELL: Yes, I think so. Look, I think it is critically important that the country hear from the former Trump officials who are sounding the alarm about how unfit Donald Trump is to serve. And I think there's some people -- so John Kelly has made some striking comments and it's incredibly notable that Donald Trump's own vice president, who served with him, is not going to endorse him this time. But we need to hear from Jim Mattis.
We need to hear from so many of the cabinet officials that they have maybe said something off the record, or maybe they've a quote here and there. They need to sound the alarm and explain to the country what they saw, why Donald Trump cannot return to office, and because we might think it doesn't matter to voters, but to this critical slice of voters who will make the margin, the decision in 2024, they can make a difference. I promise.
After a few words of warning about whether Chris Christie would run on a third-party "No Labels" ticket, Bash went to commercial with an entirely different approach to President Biden, what we might joke is CNN's Obama Mode, promoting Biden as a sports junkie: "And the games are already underway. President Biden is getting all in on March Madness fun. We'll show you his brackets and break them down after a quick break."
Is Biden granting an interview to ESPN to explain his Final Four picks? No, that might underline how much he's really following college hoops, and someone might ask about the border or something.
Here is CNN's Dana Bash following her "Trump Speaks Well of Hitler" story (punctuated with an ad break) with puffery about Joe Biden's March Madness bracket with Coy Wire, who also picked U-Conn to win it all. (Hat tip: @DrewHolden360) pic.twitter.com/ETSKforkmD
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) March 21, 2024
BASH: President Biden has entered the March Madness chat. He's going with the pros and picking tournament favorite UConn to win the Men's NCAA tournament. And North Carolina, Tennessee and University of Houston rounding out the final four. The games kicked off about an hour ago, 64 teams are hoping for their one shining moment. CNN's Coy Wire is here. Coy, good to see you. What do you make of the president's bracket?
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Dana, it is safe or is it? He said he went with three one-seed and a two-seed to make to the final four. Of course March Madness is so magical and fun to watch because there are always upsets and Cinderella overlooked teams almost every year making a run. So going with UConn to repeat his champs might seem like a safe pick because they are the overall favorites to win it all. But there have only been two repeat champs since 1974, Dana. I too have UConn repeating. I am doing it because Coach [Dan] Hurley wears the same lucky underwear every game and washes them by hand. That's a mad scientist in my opinion. How can you not pick a coach and team like that?
BASH: I'm a superstitious person and I love that detail. That's fantastic.
Dana Bash has no Bash in her Biden coverage. It's more like Dana Blush.
