CNN Hypocrites: Who Cares If Biden Says 2022 Midterms Will Be Illegitimate?

After Thursday’s edition of the Inaugural Address, President Biden may not require a communications team. CNN Newsroom.In an effort to correct Biden’s Wednesday comments that cast doubts about the legitimacy 2022 midterms’ legitimacy, the afternoon broadcast went into total damage control mode. Jen Psaki had already retracted her initial remarks.

Host Alisyn Camerota wondered what the big deal was, after all there are Republicans “who supported Trump’s false election claims won elections to serve as local judges and election inspectors. This is what President Biden was referring to, I think.”

Laura Barron Lopez, a political correspondent for the White House, agreed, claiming that all of this controversy was caused by Biden’s inartful reply: “Yeah. I agree with Alisyn. And look, should the president have been more clear and careful in his statement? Yes. Should the press seek clarification and the White House has sought to clarify what he meant, which was to talk about election subversion? Yes. That is what they should do.

Barron Lopez also reproached fellow journalists who were “distracted by” the issue.

But it also shouldn’t distract us in the press from the larger point and that’s that there is one party that is overwhelmingly perpetuating election lies and there are a lot of Republican candidates that are running on the basis of furthering those lies and are running saying that they may not certify future election results or that they wouldn’t have certified the 2020 election results…So these are legitimate concerns and to compare Biden’s comments yesterday to years of Trump sowing, sowing doubt about the election, saying that it was rigged, saying that it was stolen, is a false equivalence.

Camerota’s fellow co-host, Victor Blackwell, finally got around to sharing what Biden actually said in an attempt to wrap up the 2022 portion of the segment: “To be clear about what the president said, just so we have the quote as part of the conversation, what the president said was ‘the prospect of an illegitimate election is in direct proportion to us [not] being able to get these reforms passed,’ suggesting that if these laws are not passed, the John Lewis Voter Rights Act and others, that, that could be related to a legitimate or illegitimate election in 2022.”

Blackwell attempted to shift the topic by asking AtlanticRon Brownstein asked why Democrats decided to vote against the repeal of filibuster. He knew that they would lose. However, before answering that question, Brownstein also condemned the media for focusing on Biden’s remarks: “…first, I second everything Laura said, because I think what we’re seeing in this controversy over the past 24 hours says more about the failure of journalism to recognize the magnitude of the threat to democracy that we’re facing than it does about Biden who admittedly could have been more clear, not for the first time in his career.” 

Surprisingly, CNN failed to mention that Psaki had declared Thursday on not less than four occasions That Biden Believes 2022 will be legitimate. 

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This transcript covers the January 20th show.

CNN CNN Newsroom: Alisyn Camerota, Victor Blackwell

1/20/2022

2:40 PM ET

ALISYN CAMEROTA: Let me just give people some examples if they haven’t seen them yet. Wayne County, Michigan, a GOP supporter of Trump’s big election lie was selected to the board of canvassers which will certify the election results. Genesee County, Michigan, a 13-year veteran of county canvassing board lost her seat because she said correctly there was no evidence of widespread fraud. Lancaster County, your county, Pennsylvania, handful of candidates, who supported Trump’s false election claims won elections to serve as local judges and election inspectors. This is what President Biden was referring to, I think. 

LAURA BARON-LOPEZ : Yes, Alisyn. And look, should the president have been more clear and careful in his statement? Yes. Should the press seek clarification and the White House has sought to clarify what he meant, which was to talk about election subversion? Yes. Yes. But it also shouldn’t distract us in the press from the larger point and that’s that there is one party that is overwhelmingly perpetuating election lies and there are a lot of Republican candidates that are running on the basis of furthering those lies and are running saying that they may not certify future election results or that they wouldn’t have certified the 2020 election results. One example again is David Perdue in Georgia who’s running for governor there and he has launched an entire platform on Trump’s lies of a stolen election and has said that he would not have certified the 2020 election results. So these are legitimate concerns and to compare Biden’s comments yesterday to years of Trump sowing, sowing doubt about the election, saying that it was rigged, saying that it was stolen, is a false equivalence. 

VICTOR BLACKWELL: And to be clear about what the president said, just so we have the quote as part of the conversation, what the president said was “the prospect of an illegitimate election is in direct proportion to us being able to get these reforms passed,” suggesting that if these laws are not passed, the John Lewis Voter Rights Act and others, that, that could be related to a legitimate or illegitimate election in 2022. But, Ron, let me come to you on specifically your new piece In “The Atlantic,” you know, there have been questions about why call a vote on something if you don’t have the votes, to the question to Leader Schumer. And you say that this shows that there’s been a dramatic shift on the filibuster in the party. Define that. 

RON BROWNSTEIN: And by the way, first, I second everything Laura said, because I think what we’re seeing in this controversy over the past 24 hours says more about the failure of journalism to recognize the magnitude of the threat to democracy that we’re facing than it does about Biden who admittedly could have been more clear, not for the first time in his career.