As Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) walked through the hallways of the Senate Thursday, CNN senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju asked her if the Senate should consider “new evidence as part of the impeachment trial.” McSally shot back: “Manu, you’re a liberal hack. I’m not talking to you.”
“You’re not going to comment about this?” a dazed Raju asked. “You’re a liberal hack, honey,” McSally replied as she walked away. Predictably, conservatives cheered, while mainstream media decried McSally’s move as unbecoming.
Whatever your take, the interaction reflects three years of mounting frustration with an overtly partisan media, exemplified by CNN, which has dropped any pretense of fairness and become an organ of the Democratic Party.
The problem isn’t that Raju asked the question — that’s his job, after all. It’s that virtually all questions posed by political reporters these days are framed to support the narratives and assumptions of one political party, the Democrats.
CNN’s Jake Tapper, remarking on the incident, called Raju’s query reasonable, because it was “the question of the day.” Indeed, that’s the problem. Democrats are always dictating the “question of the day.”
As Tapper surely knows, there is no Lev Parnas “evidence” about alleged Trump-Giuliani misdeeds in Ukraine. There are only allegations from a sordid character named Lev Parnas. Now, perhaps those allegations will be proved true. But any honest observer of Washington understands that Democrats are stringing out these investigations until the election.
By referring to Parnas’ handwritten notes as “evidence,” Raju is merely perpetuating a talking point. Which would be fine, of course, if reporters were also stalking the hallways of the Senate demanding to know if Democrats were prepared to investigate new “evidence” of alleged wrongdoing by Hunter Biden.
On the whole, mainstream outlets have exhibited deep skepticism about verified and unverified accusations about the vice-presidential son’s Burisma shenanigans. They should do the same in the Parnas case, as well (Tapper, to his credit, has raised some questions).
You’d think that journalists who had recently subjected the nation to a hysterical three-year carousel of botched Russia “collusion” stories, fed to them by partisans, would show a lot more caution, rather than blindly embracing the theories of House Democrats.
In 2017, Raju reported an “exclusive” that Donald Trump Jr. had advance notice of WikiLeaks dumps against the Democratic Party, thus proving criminal conspiracy. It turned out Raju had gotten the date on a supposedly incriminating e-mail wrong: The e-mail apprised Don Jr. of documents that were already in the public record.
CNN ran a massively embarrassing correction while insisting the reporter had followed “editorial process.” But Raju never explained how his two supposedly independent sources both got the date on the e-mail wrong.
The Don Jr. e-mail story was just one of dozens of failed scoops that fueled paranoia around the 2016 election results. CNN was perhaps the worst offender, so it really has no business feigning indignation when a Republican senator calls one of its reporters a “hack.”
It happened when they hired ex spook perjury expert Mockingbirdie Brennan.
Yelp, really reeks with bias. Kinda makes you wonder what CNN was thinking.
@Ronald J. Ward:CNN circles the wagons around liberal hack, attacks female GOP senator. Obviously, sexist.
Instead of finding someone that wanted to talk to him he makes himself the story, he is a hack.
A little child will lie until punished for it. Likewise, the lying liberal media will lie as long as they get away with it and aren’t held accountable. And, since most of the media is liberal and lies, who is there to hold them accountable?
Well, there’s us. WE can (and are beginning to) hold them accountable by turning them off. Some have even sued them for defamation and slander and won. Hopefully, it’s only the beginning.
CNN is a liberal hack repository (or suppository; both could apply). Anyone that believes them simply ASPIRES to be an idiot.
@kitt:
The staged attack on a credible journalist by the AZ voter rejected McSally (only to be appointed to replace McCain because as Moscow Mitch explained, the wealthy donors who contributed to her failed campaign “deserved a return on their investment”) was no more than a publicity stunt merely to sidetrack from the overwhelming new evidence being presented. It also gave her an opportunity to become a “mini-Trump” parrot. She’s already bragging and raising money off of her cowardly avoidance.
That occurs to me every time Trump lies and is allowed to get away with it. Apparently he was never taught to tell the truth. Like all such people, he believes telling the truth is for suckers.
@Ronald J. Ward: Staged? Did she lure them to shove a mic in her face, you sexist pig? Or is it a woman has no right to her own opinion of this “reporter”?
Poor little hack can take his rude ignorant victimhood and have a good cry with Accosta.
@kitt:
My my, did we touch a nerve? Ease up snowflake, Raju did as any reasonable reporter would do which was respectfully asking a senator should the Senate consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial? Voter rejected and donor planted Martha McSally saw (or had pre-planned) an opportunity and took it.
Of course she has that right. She had a right to further spin the Trump cover up and exploit a journalist doing his job while joining Trump in his mission to discredit anyone that doesn’t support his illegal, vile, and treasonous mission, and she took it.
@kitt:
A quick copy and paste I found:
Consider:
1) Within minutes of the exchange, McSally had tweeted a video of the exchange with Manu (meaning she or someone on her staff was filming it the entire time)
2) Within an hour of the exchange, McSally’s campaign had registered the domain name “liberalhack.com”
3) Within 2 hours of the exchange, the @Trumpwarroom Twitter handle, which is managed by the President’s reelection campaign, was touting her attack on Manu — and urging donations to her 2020 reelection campaign
4) Within 8 hours of the exchange, McSally’s campaign was selling “Liberal Hack” T-shirts on its newly registered “LiberalHack.com” website.
5) Within 10 hours of the exchange, McSally was on Fox News Channel — laughing with Laura Ingraham about the incident.
The only thing missing at this point is a tweet from Trump himself celebrating McSally. Of course, knowing Trump, that could well be coming soon.
The point is that none of this was accidental. McSally knew exactly what she was doing — and why. After losing a Senate race in 2018 and then being appointed to replace retiring Sen. Jon Kyl (R) shortly after, McSally is facing a very difficult race in 2020. She’s trailing astronaut Mark Kelly, the likely Democratic nominee, in polling and fundraising. She needs a boost. She needs to rally the Republican base, which has never been all that enthusiastic about her record of relative moderation. And so, she does this.
@Ronald J. Ward: So you just double down on your blatant misogyny. The Senator has better things to do than be delayed by a CNN hack boy.
They can contact her staff and request an interview stop laying in wait in front of her office.
First timers are warned about certain reporters on the hill.
She happens to be a United States Air Force combat veteran and perfectly capable of standing on her own and deciding who gets an interview and wise to avoid CNN Hacks with their stupid trap techniques. Such an ignorant question, the Senators must weigh all the evidence provided by the House.
@kitt:
You say such foolish things. It’s perfectly within the norm for reporters to throw questions while lawmakers are in transit from one place to another. It’s how they do it.
This is exactly how voter rejected and donor planted McSally devised her plan. She’s just another part of fraudulence and you bought into it.
Whether or not witnesses should be heard at the Senate impeachment trial is probably the single most important question that any competent American journalist should be presently asking of any U.S. senator.
Those will be complicit in the cover up are those that don’t want to be held accountable for their actions. Consequently, they view an honest, straightforward question as a trap and a threat.
@Greg: Well, I guess that wouldn’t be as often as thinking about it every time Schiff lies. Or Pelosi. Or CNN. Or MSNBC. Or ABC. Or CBS. Or NBC. You are adroit at ignoring the lies… the REAL, SIGNIFICANT lies.
Collusion was a lie. Emoluments was a lie. Impeachment was a lie. You really have no possible use for the truth because it proves everything you believe in is a lie. You and Rich and AJ.
@kitt: CNN is a total joke and deserves no respect or even the time it takes to tell them to shove off. Poor AJ has gotten his feelings hurt because McSally didn’t fall to her knees in worship of the most wonderful CNN. Well, only liberals worship their lies.
@Deplorable Me: CNN and MSNBC will have plenty to whine about, John Soloman is firing up a new site, Just the News There will be not only news it will offer a Dig Deeper tool on their Web site that allows consumers to see the underlying core materials and evidence that substantiate each story.
With the help of Southeastern Legal Foundation, Solomon has a lawsuit that seeks to compel the State Department to release the critical records. Once released, the records are expected to reveal, once and for all, exactly why President Trump wanted to investigate the dealings in Ukraine, and finally expose the side of the story that Democrats are trying to hide in their push for impeachment.
No doubt Schifty knows this hence the need for speed.
@kitt: Why Trump wanted the Burisma case reopened is the key and destroys the entire Democrat case… which is why the Democrats steered everything away from it. Greg fools no one; the last thing they want is to hear what Guiliani has uncovered. What is KNOWN is bad enough.
Wow…now we know who Greg and AJ work for.
Who knew?
Only the small minority of “Leftists” even watch CNN, and it’s influence is melting away…since it’s not even a real news source.
Dismissed.
@Deplorable Me:
Oh please Brer Schifty dont throw Rudy in the Briar patch.
@Ronald J. Ward:
I want that staffer’s crystal ball that allowed him to know Manu would ask that particular question (which was loaded, of course)
What took them so long? Registering a domain name takes about 15 minutes, max.
Good. Remind me how Democrats never do something like that.
Saw the t-shirt. Pretty basic stuff (print only) that can be done through Vista Print in less than 15-20 minutes.
Laura Ingraham broadcasts from D.C. How long does it take to make a phone call and invite someone on your show that begins at 10:00 p.m.
But…………..but……………Trump.
Are you claiming that Manu was in cahoots with McSally and she had her canned response to him all ready?
@retire05: He is saying it is simple to punk a retard.
@retire05:
If I have a claim to make I’ll do so.
McSALLY: “You’re a liberal hack. I’m not talking to you.”
McSALLY: “You’re a liberal hack, buddy.”
Watching you guys trying to spin and suck Trump butt is more comical (or perhaps stupid) than a Laurel and Hardy movie. All she needed was a non-Fox News reporter and to get the gender right. Manu just happened to have been the guy.
.
@retire05: #20 see what I mean easy as pie.
AJ is a liberal hack.
@Deplorable Me:
“Manu just happened to have been the guy.”
How does AJ/Ward know that Manu is really a “guy”? At least we know that AJ/Ward cannot seem to make a point without his potty mouth. Shows a total lack of intellect.
@Ronald J. Ward:
Think maybe its time to expose Mark Kelly, who claimed in 2013 that it was easy to purchase a gun in the U.S. He even did a video. Except………………..
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2013/04/03/mark-kelly-s-video-failed-to-show-he-was-denied-on-handgun-purchase-too/
Never mind that while Kelly was presenting himself to the gun store as an Arizona resident, in the same month in 2013 he was still a registered voter in Texas and he still claimed resident homestead exemption on his home in Galveston County, Texas which gave him a $15,000 taxable discount although he had purchased a home in Arizona in 2012 and immediately claimed residency for tax purposed.
Mark Kelly is an ASS-tronaught.
When you scare off a little dog, crickets follow
@Greg:
so where is the whistleblower???
@MOS 8541:
Pelosi made him an impeachment manager
@retire05:
I’d say the good folks of Arizona should be the one’s to decide if they want McSally over Kelly.
They voter her down once, only to be told they’d take her any damn way because the big donors spent a lot of money on her and deserved a return on their investment.
@Ronald J. Ward: You are correct the voters are the boss she needs to work on her liberty score which stands at an F right now, same as McCains was.
@MOS 8541, #26:
At this point, the whistle blower you should be concerned about is Lev Parnas. He’s the guy who has just made it impossible to keep republican witnesses who have direct, first hand knowledge from testifying without the cover up conspiracy itself becoming impossible to cover up.
@Greg:
Really your media doesnt get to order us who to worry about, nor do you tinfoilhat child, show us the whistle blower, big foot and the Chupacabra. Every bit of this is a manufactured hoax of Schiff for brains.
The only cover-up is the slushing of US aid back to US politicians.
@Greg: Yeah, at this point the “whistle blower” you WISH we would be interested in is Parnas. No, let’s hear the “whistle blower” testify. Let’s hear how someone without first hand knowledge colludes with Schitt to invent this Ukraine fantasy.
From CNN, the news outlet you love to hate: January 19, 2020 – NSC Senior Director for European and Russian Affairs placed on administrative leave
@Greg: So hard to find good help nowadayz. He came from the State Department.
@Deplorable Me:
If the Democrats want witnesses, here are my suggestions:
Joe Biden
Hunter Biden
The Whistleblower
Adam Schiff
Of course, Comrade Greggie is wetting his Hanes over a man who is [eventually] going to jail, like the guys he put so much faith in before (see Avanatti, et al).
Read the Impeachment brief. It is a list of Wishful Dreams. It calls Joe Biden the opponent of Trump. Seems to me the Democrats have forgotten, along with our system of juris prudence, our system of elections and is totally ignoring the primaries. How do the Democrats know that Biden will be Trump’s opponent? Right now, the only opponents Joe Biden has is the clown show of Democrats running in the Democrat primary, not any Republican.
Also, it accuses Trump of trying to rig the 2020 general election, WITH NO PROOF. The whole Impeachment brief is a joke. But as San Fran Nan said, they don’t need facts, only accusations. It is a demand for legal punishment for crimes yet committed.
This is the literal bullsh!t that Comrade Greggie buys into, hook, line and sinker. And Comrade Greggie comes here, day after day, thinking Americans are so stupid they are really going to buy into the whole impeachment fiasco being wrought on us by the Democrats. We’re not.
And what do we get if, and that is a big IF, Trump is found guilty of the impeachment charges? Hello, President Pence.
@kitt: Especially when Democrats bribe people to lie.
@retire05:
Maybe they are revealing a little too much of what they already know.
I would add to the witness list Menendez, Leahy and Durbin and question them on their demand to Ukraine to dig up dirt on Trump for Mueller. Let’s call Vindman, too, and get to the bottom of his manipulation of the transcript and his association with the “whistle blower”.
How about the Democrats’ efforts to rig the 2020 election? They’ve been using government resources since Trump won to find some dirt on him to undercut his reelection bid. This impeachment was simply their final (pre-next term) desperate effort to kill his 2020 hopes.
I don’t think even Greg believes this weak-ass shit. NO BODY does. It’s simply flailing in the wind and hoping for the best. It’s what crybabies do.