CNN Defends Nebraska Candidate Mocking Stupid Hicks Waving Trump Flags

Mike Dubke Meghan Hays CNN This Morning 9-17-26

Thursday's CNN This Morning played a clip of supposedly independent Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn sounding like a Democrat again, mocking Nebraskans as "Billy Bob and Mary Jo," mindlessly waving their Trump flags, unaware that their lives "suck." With some F-bombs thrown in:

OSBORN: Billy Bob in f------ Red Cloud, Nebraska, who lives next door to the f------ Trump store as you pull into town, and is waving the Trump flag.... He's been so effective at taking Billy Bob and his wife Mary Jane or Mary Jo, at telling them, "Look, we're winning. You're on the winning team." And that's all they care about, because their lives probably suck so f------ [bad.] 

Osborn later offered the familiar half-apology: he doesn’t remember the context, he would apologize to anyone who might be offended, and "I feel their pain" [© Bill Clinton, 1992.] 

Let's imagine that people who live in and around Red Cloud (population 962) aren't going to love this comment...and is there a Trump store in town? Is anyone there named "Billy Bob"?

Group Chat regular and former Biden comms person Meghan Hays defended Osborn: 

"So I'll probably get canceled here very quickly. I actually am more angry that he apologized because I don't think what he said is that far off. I think people consistently vote against their own self-interest." 

Right, Meghan! The rubes don't know what's good for them! That’s the old “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” line: red-state rubes voting against their own economic interests because of culture.

Hays wasn't done condescending to those cornhusker hicks. She found it "really disconcerting" that: 

"People aren't understanding, or aren't putting the puzzle together, that Trump is causing a lot of these problems between tariffs and the war." 

No Rubik's Cubes for you, Billy Bob and Mary Jo! 
 

Note: Before turning it over to Hays, host Audie Cornish floated a couple of lame excuses for Osborn. Maybe he said what he did "'Cause he's an independent candidate, maybe 'cause he's up and coming in the campaign world." Audie added: "I'm trying to help him out." 

Last time Audie tried to help a Republican out of a big gaffe? Her ardor tells you Osborn -- running for the second time for the Senate -- isn't really "independent."

At least Mike Dubke was allowed to offer a strong counterpoint: "He despises these people he just spoke about. You heard it in his off -- you know, he didn't know he was being recorded. And that was not an apology. After 32 years of marriage….And I hope they run that over and over and over again, because he despises the people of Nebraska. And it came through."

Here's the transcript. 

CNN This Morning 
9/17/26 
6:22 am EDT 

AUDIE CORNISH: Independent U.S. Senate candidate from Nebraska, Dan Osborn, caught on a hot mic, again. 

DAN OSBORN: Billy Bob in f------ Red Cloud, Nebraska, who lives next door to the f------ Trump store as you pull into town, and is waving the Trump flag. He's just, he just, all he knows, is he's like on the winning team. It's, it's really that simple. It is, and, and Trump, and that is why he's been so effective. He's been so effective at taking Billy Bob and his wife Mary Jane or Mary Jo, at telling them, "Look, we're winning. You're on the winning team." And that's all they care about, because their lives probably suck so f------ [bad.] 

CORNISH: Yeah, so last night he came on CNN. He apologized, but he offered, you know, context as to why he said what he said. 

OSBORN: It sure sounds like me. I don't remember who I was talking to or what the context was there, but what I do know is, certainly people are angry about this, and life continues to get harder. And I would apologize to those people that might be offended, but I gotta tell 'em I, I feel their pain. I, I absolutely feel their pain. We're all angry right now. 

CORNISH: Okay, my messaging folks, help me out. I need pros, because this is not his first leaked audio problem in this month. It's also not the second. This is audio Politico obtained last week. He says campaigning -- oh, do we have that? Let me see. "Campaigning is not being a U.S. senator. So, it is about trying to win votes in a Republican state." 

I don't know why he's not more sensitive to this, maybe 'cause he's an independent candidate, maybe 'cause he's up and coming in the campaign world. I'm trying, jump in. I'm trying to help him out. 

MEGHAN HAYS: So I'll probably get canceled here very quickly. I actually am more angry that he apologized because I don't think what he said is that far off. 

I think people consistently vote against their own self-interest. And I think that's a really hard thing to square. 

And I think it's really also, people are suffering and people really are having a hard time. And the fact that people aren't understanding, or aren't putting the puzzle together, that Trump is causing a lot of these problems between tariffs and the war, I think is really disconcerting. And I think that that's probably, he's speaking from point of view.