CBS’s Charlie Rose Appears Baffled GOPers Leveled ‘a Lot of Attacks on Hillary’ in Debate

November 11th, 2015 8:39 PM

Filling in for Scott Pelley on Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, Charlie Rose provided a wrap-up of Tuesday’s Fox Business Networks Republican presidential debate and seemed exasperated when he wondered to Face the Nation anchor John Dickerson “why” did the GOP candidates level “a lot of attacks on Hillary Clinton.”

Prior to Rose’s baffling assessment, he declared that there were “sharp elbows thrown during last night’s Republican presidential debate” and turned over to chief White House correspondent Major Garrett, who hyped that the issue of illegal immigration has “widened at the fourth presidential debate” between candidates like Donald Trump versus Jeb Bush and John Kasich.

Garrett touted Kasich as offering “a sharp rebuke” of Trump and hyped that “Bush warned Democrats would exploit the issue.” 

He later added in the conclusion of his report that Trump’s utterance of the need for a “deportation force” of illegal immigrants draws comparisons to Mitt Romney’s “self-deportation” line in the 2012 election:

The phrase “deportation force” carries stark imagery, even more stark than Mitt Romney's 2012 reference to self-deportation. Charlie, Democrats used that against Republicans to win the Hispanic vote and Republicans, long-anxious about the Trump effect on the party, are fearful of a 2016 sequel. 

Turning to Dickerson for analysis (days before he’ll moderate Saturday’s Democratic debate), Rose flashed his liberal colors with this short but confounding question: “John, during that debate, a lot of attacks on Hillary Clinton. Why?” 

Turning aside for a moment, one has to wonder: Did it ever occur to Rose that this is how politics work and recall that Clinton cited Republicans as her biggest enemy in the first Democratic debate?

Dickerson was a good sport and provided a simple answer for Rose’s inquiry:

Well, all the candidates were auditioning. If primary voters vote first on ideology, do they agree with the candidates on the stage on the issues, they also vote on electability. Can they imagine those candidates going all the way, going the distance to November?

Closing out the 2016 coverage for the show, Rose and Dickerson teamed to prop up Bush and Clinton on immigration:

ROSE: And Jeb Bush said during the debate that the Republican debate on immigration is creating high-fives in the Clinton camp. 

DICKERSON: What Bush meant is that the Democrats benefit with minority voters when Republicans boast about deporting undocumented workers. Ted Cruz said he found that offensive and that he, Ted Cruz and others are just trying to enforce the laws, but Bush may have literally been right when he said that during the debate because Brian Fallon, the Clinton press secretary tweeted, “we are actually high-fiving each other right now.”

The relevant portions of the transcript from the CBS Evening News on November 11 can be found below.

CBS Evening News
November 11, 2015
6:32 p.m. Eastern

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: GOP Debate]

CHARLIE ROSE: The Iowa caucuses are just 82 days away, which explains the sharp elbows thrown during last night's Republican presidential debate. 15 candidates in the field, eight on stage, each trying to stand out. Major Garrett reports a major campaign issue has emerged. 

MARIA BARTIROMO: Can you just send —

MAJOR GARRETT: The Republican rift over illegal immigration widened at the fourth presidential debate, with Donald Trump demanding mass deportation of an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. 

DONALD TRUMP: We either have a country or we don't have a country. We are a country of laws that have to go out, and they'll come back, but they're going to have to go out, and hopefully, they get back. 

GARRETT: That drew a sharp rebuke from Ohio Governor John Kasich. 

REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR JOHN KASICH (Ohio): Come on, folks. We all know you can't pick them up and ship them across — back across the border. It's a silly argument. It's not an adult argument. 

(....)

GARRETT: During the debate, Bush warned Democrats would exploit the issue. 

JEB BUSH: They're doing high-fives in the Clinton campaign right now when they hear this. 

GARRETT: And in fact, Hillary Clinton retweeted a message about Trump's imagined deportation force, the operative word: “No.” Clinton factored prominently in both GOP debates. This was Chris Christie during the undercard version.

(....)

GARRETT: The phrase “deportation force” carries stark imagery, even more stark than Mitt Romney's 2012 reference to self-deportation. Charlie, Democrats used that against Republicans to win the Hispanic vote and Republicans, long-anxious about the Trump effect on the party, are fearful of a 2016 sequel. 

ROSE: Major Garrett in Des Moines, Iowa, thanks. John Dickerson is our CBS News political director and the anchor of Face the Nation. John, during that debate, a lot of attacks on Hillary Clinton. Why? 

FACE THE NATION ANCHOR JOHN DICKERSON: Well, all the candidates were auditioning. If primary voters vote first on ideology do, they agree with the candidates on the stage on the issues, they also vote on electability. Can they imagine those candidates going all the way, going the distance to November? So what they were doing was trying to give voter as glimpse of how tough they'd be on Hillary Clinton if they were up against her in the general election. 

ROSE: And Jeb Bush said during the debate that the Republican debate on immigration is creating high-fives in the Clinton camp. 

DICKERSON: What Bush meant is that the Democrats benefit with minority voters when Republicans boast about deporting undocumented workers. Ted Cruz said he found that offensive and that he, Ted Cruz and others are just trying to enforce the laws, but Bush may have literally been right when he said that during the debate because Brian Fallon, the Clinton press secretary tweeted, “we are actually high-fiving each other right now.”