Sen. Jon Ossoff delighted liberal journalists when he smeared young Trump aide Natalie Harp (who's 35) as carrying on a sexual affair with the president (who's 80). It showed "the art of the viral clip," claimed CNN's Brian Stelter. They didn't really care to ask: But is that true?
MRC Senior Research Analyst Bill D'Agostino and Mediaite columnist Brad Slager joined the show to assess the Harp smears and the rest. Amazingly, they tried to make it sound like it was Trump that violated human decency. A CNN.com transcript of Erin Burnett OutFront carried the headline "Trump, White House Unload On Senator Ossoff With Name-Calling, Crude Attacks." The Harp smear wasn't a crude attack? Trump compared Ossoff to Pee Wee Herman, which is much milder than comparing Trump to Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot.
Erin Burnett also tried to dig into Natalie Harp by bringing on her estranged brother Preston, who clearly didn't seem to know much about his sister's recent history -- plus he slammed his mother, claiming she taught them "American exceptionalism," including the quaint concept that owning slaves didn't make anyone a bad person.
Liberals chided Trump for name-calling, but the journalists weren't being nicer. Take this headline from People magazine online: "White House Correspondent Says Trump’s Doting Assistant Natalie Harp Is Like His ‘Binky’ amid Scrutiny Over Their Relationship." The correspondent was Maggie Haberman of The New York Times.
Guest-hosting on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, Rosie O'Donnell called Trump "President Petty Roosevelt," and the audience clapped like seals. She added: "You got to realize it’s time to hang up your wig and let Natalie tuck you in.” On another show, she claimed Trump made her "re-famous," adding "You brought me back, just like you did with fascism and the measles.”
That's one of our contenders for Worst Media Quote of the Week, alongside HBO's John Oliver, who trashed Ronald Reagan again for insisting unborn babies are human. Oliver said “It seems you cannot trace the source of any modern problem without a cameo from this messy bitch. He truly is the Forrest Gump of societal ills.”
Brad's from Florida, so we discussed the surprise victory of DSA member and state Rep. Angie Nixon in the Democrat primary for U.S. Senate. CBS was surprisingly tough on Wednesday morning, asking how the socialists would pay for things like Medicare For All. They pressed several times. She kept saying make the billionaires pay their fair share, which is just inherently silly. There's not enough billionaires to fund what she wants. Nixon got a much more predictable bath on Morning Joe, including a celebration of the DSA's hateful stance on Israel.
Enjoy the podcast on video below. The audio is here.
