Reince Priebus Calls Out Soledad O'Brien for Double Standard

Matt Hadro
October 11th, 2012 8:02 PM
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After a lengthy spar with CNN's Soledad O'Brien over an alleged Mitt Romney flip-flop, RNC chief Reince Priebus called her out for her double standard on Thursday's Starting Point.

"Soledad, I wish you would be as passionate about taking Barack Obama to task for every one of his promises and for every one of his changes that he didn't follow through on over the last four years, as opposed to this," Priebus lectured her. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

O'Brien had grilled Priebus over Mitt Romney promising no legislation "regarding abortion" before saying he would pursue legislation providing protection from abortion. However, she hosted Obama surrogate Corey Booker earlier and could have pressed him on the administration's Libya fiasco or Biden's gaffes, among other things, but chose not to.

Instead, O'Brien had an uneventful interview with Booker over polling and the debates, asking him about Obama's dip in the polls but following up with easier questions like what he thinks are the "strengths and weaknesses of the Vice President?"

Booker lauded the honesty of the Vice President and his willingness to go off-script. Again, O'Brien could have pounced and asked about Biden's infamous "chains" comment or his "buried" gafffe, but declined.

She asked Booker if he agreed with the President that he was "too polite" in the debate, citing Obama's absurd excuse for his poor debate performance. "Would you say that was your analysis of how that went? Was the problem in that debate that he was just too polite?" she asked.

A transcript of the segment, which aired on Starting Point on October 11 at 7:45 a.m. EDT, is as follows:

REINCE PRIEBUS: Soledad, I wish you would be as passionate about taking Barack Obama to task for every one of his promises and for every one of his changes that he didn't follow through on over the last four years, as opposed to this.

(Crosstalk)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Which we do all the time. You know what? And trust me –

PRIEBUS: Uh-huh, sure.

O'BRIEN: – I will send you the tweets from people who hate me on the Republican side and hate me on the Democratic side. Anybody who comes on this show –

PRIEBUS: I don't hate you. Hey listen, I come on all the time. I don't hate you.

O'BRIEN: Of course. I assume that. I know you love me. But I'm just telling you, the people who watch us. But I've got to tell you, we're going to ask tough questions of everybody, I don't care what side they're on, honestly.