The Other McCain

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Elizabeth Warren’s Media Helpers Try to Revive Her Campaign at Bernie’s Expense

Posted on | January 16, 2020 | Comments Off on Elizabeth Warren’s Media Helpers Try to Revive Her Campaign at Bernie’s Expense

 

Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate was so white that Antifa would punch it in the face, and moderators for CNN made it clear who they favored among the six white Democrats assembled on the Des Moines stage. We haven’t seen the memo from CNN chief Jeff Zucker, but it was obvious that the assignment was to (a) attack Bernie Sanders and (b) boost Elizabeth Warren. Perhaps many Sanders supporters — who saw their candidate get cheated out of the 2016 nomination by DNC insiders working for Hillary Clinton — will now agree with President Trump’s assessment of the media as “the enemy of the people.”

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass:

What CNN did to Bernie Sanders in the Iowa Democratic presidential debate — stabbing him with the gender card on behalf of a weakened Elizabeth Warren — was cheap and unfair.
And it was shameful. . . .
What happened on CNN in Iowa was bad for journalism. But it sure was good for Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden.
Sanders, the authentic candidate on the left in this cycle, as he was in the last, was surging in the Iowa polls. Warren, also on the left, was fading, desperate and in full panic. She began waving her gender card on that dangerous Intersectionality Highway where Democrats, addicted to identity politics, often crack up.
Just before the debate, CNN ran a story portraying Sanders as misogynist who thinks a woman couldn’t be elected president. That’s ridiculous. He doesn’t believe that.
And at the CNN debate, moderator Abby Phillip took Warren’s gender card, fashioned it into a knife and stabbed Sanders just weeks before the Iowa caucuses.
“Sen. Sanders, CNN reported yesterday, and Sen. Warren confirmed in a statement, that in 2018 you told her that you did not believe that a woman could win the election. Why did you say that?” Phillip asked of Sanders.
“Well,” Sanders said, “as a matter of fact, I didn’t say it.
“I don’t want to waste a whole lot of time on this, because this is what Donald Trump and maybe some of the media want,” Sanders added. . . .
Before Sanders was shivved, Democratic establishment candidate Biden looked lost and frail and unsure.
Biden was like some elderly Uncle Joe retiree in line at 4 p.m. for the early bird dinner with the free Jell-O.
But who remembers that after Warren pointedly refused to shake her “friend” Bernie’s hand? Biden wasn’t even touched by CNN’s debate moderators. His questions were wrapped in pillows.
You might think all this is a coincidence, but then, you might be a moron. . . .

Obviously it was not a coincidence: The CNN moderators were there to trash Sanders, support Warren and — by ginning up conflict between these two left-wingers — thereby help “moderate” Joe Biden in the Iowa caucuses, by preventing Bernie from surging to a solid victory on Feb. 4.

It’s media malpractice like this that causes people to believe in conspiracy theories — the fix is in and the game is rigged — because it doesn’t require any evidence to see what is happening in front of our eyes and realize that it could not be happening by mere coincidence. No, some actual human beings at CNN decided that this would be the script for the Iowa debate, and it’s plainly obvious that CNN is against Bernie Sanders just as much as it is obvious that CNN is against Donald Trump.

Elizabeth Warren to Bernie after debate:
“I think you called me a liar on national TV”

Was this narrative of Bernie being a sexist who doesn’t believe a woman can be president manufactured by the “fake news” media? It doesn’t matter — Bernie’s supporters recognize it as a dirty trick. Whatever it was that Bernie actually said to Warren in that meeting, the timing of the story in the run-up to Tuesday’s debate was clearly not a coincidence. The people in charge at CNN want Biden as the 2020 nominee, and anyone can look at the polls as an explanation of what happened Tuesday.

 

In early September, according the Real Clear Politics average of Iowa polls, Biden had a commanding lead in the state, 28.5%, with Warren and Sanders neck-and-neck in second place at 18% and 17.5% respectively. A month later, Warren moved into the lead (23% to Biden’s 18% by Oct. 1) but then, over the next six weeks, however, Warren faded badly while Pete Buttigieg surged to first place in Iowa. Then in December, Buttigieg began fading, and Bernie moved into first place as Warren dropped into fourth place. Who benefits from CNN’s promotion of Warren at the expense of Sanders? It’s not just Warren they’re helping, it’s Biden — the Democratic establishment candidate in the same sense that Hillary was the establishment candidate four years ago.

As I say, this kind of blatant manipulation by the media feeds into the paranoid mentality of the left-wing populists who support Sanders. Regardless of who wins Iowa, Bernie’s supporters now have more reason than ever to believe that a corrupt establishment is attempting to prevent their candidate from winning. If the only way Biden can get the nomination is to have CNN and other establishment media do his dirty work for him, what will that mean for Democrats in November?



 

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