Despite the cost of the auto bailout to taxpayers, CNN hailed the subsequent resurfacing of GM as a "pretty amazing" feat and took a jab at the original opponents of the bailout, which included current presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Thursday's John King, USA featured fill-in host Kate Bolduan and business correspondent Ali Velshi wagging their fingers at Romney and the naysayers.
"And, by the way, Kate, I know you didn't ask me the question, but those people who fought against the auto bailout a couple of years ago kind of have egg on their faces right now," Velshi quipped. [Video below the break.]
After reporting the record profits of General Motors, Bolduan began the segment by pitting "that made-in-America pride" against Romney's opposition to the "government bailout and bankruptcy that kept GM going." Apparently, Romney not only stood against the bailouts but against the "made-in-America pride" of GM.
Bolduan took another indirect shot at Romney later when she marveled that "It's really amazing when you kind of look back with hindsight, because there were so many skeptics, Ali, when we were covering this when it was happening back in '09."
And the CNN host continued the narrative in her later interview with Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R). She pressed the governor over his endorsement of Romney, and his opposition to the bailout. "Do you think, though, those words could come back to haunt him in this primary?" she asked of Romney's condemnation of the bailout in 2008.
A brief transcript of the segment, which aired on February 16 at 6:06 p.m. EST, is as follows:
KATE BOLDUAN: Today, General Motors announced it earned record profits in 2011, $7,600,000, pretty amazing.
(...)
BOLDUAN: Tonight, that made-in-America pride is bumping up against Mitt Romney's opposition to the multibillion-dollar government bailout and bankruptcy that kept GM going.
(...)
ALI VELSHI, CNN chief business correspondent: And, by the way, Kate, I know you didn't ask me the question, but those people who fought against the auto bailout a couple of years ago kind of have egg on their faces right now.
