File this one under "Sudden Respect," our NewsBusters classification for instances of the liberal media praising a conservative person or publication expressing an opinion supportive of the Democrat party line at the momemt.
It happened on today's CNN This Morning, when host Audie Cornish approvingly cited Andrew C. McCarthy of National Review, apropos the reported second strike on a narco boat that was allegedly intended to kill two survivors of the first strike. Wrote McCarthy, a former Assistant United States Attorney:
"If this happened as described in the Post report, it was, at best, a war crime under federal law."
Here's a suggestion: what if Audie were to occasionally cite National Review when it makes the case in opposition to the liberal talking point o' the day?
The CNN segment went on to knock Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is said to have ordered the second strike, for posting a meme of the children's story character Franklin the Turtle firing on a boat of narco terrorists.
Said Cornish wryly: "[It] "doesn't feel like you could kind of meme your way out of it."
Also, CNN Senior Media Analyst Sara Fischer bizarrely suggested that Democrats have hit on a "winning issue," which is "preserving democracy" from Trump. That was not a winning issue for Kamala Harris last year.
I've seen in the past few months, there's been so much drama around whether it's been lawful use of the National Guard to go into cities and to sort of temper whatever illegal action they say is happening there. You feel this sense that the military is being used for political purposes, broadly speaking, whether it's here at home or it's internationally.
And I think Democrats are seeing that as a key issue ahead of the midterms next year. It plays into this issue that was a winning one for them around preserving democracy.
PS: At the end of the segment, Cornish teased an upcoming discussion of the shooting at a children's birthday celebration in Stockton, California in which four people, including three children, were killed.
The mayor of Stockton has called it "domestic terrorism," saying it was "gang violence."
But Cornish lamented, "Is no place safe from gun violence?"
Yeah, those doggone guns, up to their violent ways again.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
12/1/25
6:06 am ETAUDIE CORNISH: Sara, there's two reasons why we're talking about this today, and I think why Americans would care about it. One, there has been a question about whether or not we are effectively somehow [chuckles]going to war with Venezuela.
But two, you saw Mark Kelly there. Democrats just finished getting in a battle saying, hey troops, pay attention to unlawful orders, illegal orders. And then you have various Republicans coming out and saying, was this unlawful? Was this illegal? It feels like it's sort of undermines what the White House has been saying.
SARA FISCHER: The wording matters a lot here, Audie. When you say we're in a war on drugs, one of the things that Republicans have come out and said is, if this is something that you're going to characterize as a war, that's why we're going to view these as war crimes. So you don't get to have it both ways.
And then, too, on the Republicans coming out against this, I've seen in the past few months, there's been so much drama around whether it's been lawful use of the National Guard to go into cities and to sort of temper whatever illegal action they say is happening there.
You feel this sense that the military is being used for political purposes, broadly speaking, whether it's here at home or it's internationally.
And I think Democrats are seeing that as a key issue ahead of the midterms next year. It plays into this issue that was a winning one for them around preserving democracy. And so I think that they're going to continue to hone in on that. Republicans, of course, hate that narrative. But the fact that you have so many coming out and saying that this could be a potential war crime means that they don't want to be on the wrong side of history.
CORNISH: Yeah, I was seeing, one more thing I want to show you guys. The National Review, you had commentator Andrew McCarthy saying:
"If this happened, as described in the Post report, it was, at best, a war crime under federal law. It's a serious matter. The administration's defense cannot be 'we killed them because our plan is to use lethal force.'"
The way people are talking about this doesn't feel like you could kind of meme your way out of it.
MICHELLE PRICE: Yeah, and the Secretary of Defense last night was posting, of a children's book, of a character gleefully killing what he called narco terrorists. So he seemed to be embracing this as kind of a joke that there was any kind of backlash. There did not seem to be any kind of reflection or commentary that they were taking it seriously when you're posting images and memes like this.
CORNISH: Yeah, and I'll be interested to see what other Republicans talk this week, if this investigation actually goes any further.
You guys stay with me. We've got a lot more to talk about today. Coming up on CNN This Morning, a mass shooting at a child's birthday party. Is no place safe from gun violence?
