On Sunday’s Inside Politics, Daily Beast reporter Jackie Kucinich, formerly with USA Today and the Washington Post, criticized former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley from the left after he told a group of liberal activists in Arizona over the weekend: “Black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter.”
The segment began with CNN’s John King asking “what's happening here in the Progressive base of the Democratic Party, and why Bernie Sanders or Martin O'Malley maybe weren't as attuned or sensitive to what they were walking into there?”
Kucinich quickly blasted O’Malley for “saying all lives matter, particularly when you're talking about this movement, is just tone deaf, it misses the point.” The liberal Daily Beast reporter stressed how the event was aimed at “courting the Obama coalition that includes African-Americans” and O’Malley should have known better than to say that “all lives matter”:
Martin O'Malley should know better than to say something like that. He was the mayor of Baltimore. He was the governor of Maryland. That was striking to me that he kept repeating it, as well.
King eagerly agreed with Kucinich, and given that O’Malley is polling at 1% or 2% for the Democratic nomination “and you're trying to find your opening to make inroads that hurt." Molly Ball, reporter for the Atlantic, noted that O’Malley’s bigger problem among Democrats was that he was virtually unknown to primary voters before she quickly found time to cheer Hillary Clinton for skipping the liberal event:
You notice Hillary Clinton was not at that Progressive a vent and a lot of people saying that was a wise decision for her to avoid this kind of a side show and this spectacle of all the divisions within the Democratic Party that are really flaring out in the open right now.
See relevant transcript below.
CNN’s Inside Politics
July 19, 2015
JOHN KING: Help me understand what's happening here in the Progressive base of the Democratic Party, and why Bernie Sanders or Martin O'Malley maybe weren't as attuned or sensitive to what they were walking into there?
JACKIE KUCINICH: These candidates are all courting the Obama coalition and that includes African-Americans. And saying all lives matter, particularly when you're talking about this movement, is just tone deaf, it misses the point. And someone -- I mean Bernie Sanders, he is sort of starting to quote -- to court the African-American vote but Martin O'Malley should know better than to say something like that. He was
the mayor of Baltimore. He was the governor of Maryland. That was striking to me that he kept repeating it, as well.
KING: And if you're at 1% or 2% like Martin O'Malley and you're trying to find your opening to make inroads that hurt.
MOLLY BALL: A little bit. Although he is at least getting some attention for it. I mean the biggest problem for Martin O'Malley I walking down the street in Cedar Rapids on Friday night and people are going, who's Martin O'Malley? So he's still having a problem just sort of getting recognized here. You notice Hillary Clinton was not at that Progressive a vent and a lot of people saying that was a wise decision for her to avoid this kind of a side show and this spectacle of all the divisions within the Democratic Party that are really flaring out in the open right now.
