Even with the House finally transmitting the signed articles of impeachment to the Senate today and the Senate passing the USMCA trade agreement, the big story of the day is Sen. Martha McSally calling CNN’s Manu Raju a “liberal hack” on her way into a conference room. At least she said something, unlike when the members of The Squad just ignored a reporter asking them to condemn a terrorist attack on an ICE facility. Remember when that was all over the news for a day? We don’t either.
Maybe it wasn’t the most elegant way to respond, but you have to understand just how fragile the mainstream media has been ever since Donald Trump was elected: everything is an attack, and drama queen Jim Acosta even published a book about what a dangerous time it is to be a journalist in America — for example, you might not get called on in a press conference even though you work for CNN.
We collected the reactions from a lot of blue checks earlier, but now the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent has upgraded McSally’s comment from what CNN called “extremely unbecoming” (gasp!) to nasty and “chilling.”
What's behind Martha McSally's chilling insult to CNN's @mkraju? @ThePlumLineGS has a compelling answer: https://t.co/dEGVqcEmEz
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 16, 2020
Excuse us, but are we supposed to be crying over this or something? Yeah, she could have handled it better, but grow a pair.
Sargent writes:
In a perverse way, it’s fitting that this episode is going viral at exactly the moment when President Trump’s impeachment trial is getting underway — that is, when Trump’s defenders in the Senate are set to put on a great show of pretending to give serious consideration to the case against Trump, before voting to acquit him.
McSally’s vile little performance puts the lie to that notion as effectively as anything possibly could.
What happened is that CNN’s Manu Raju, a hard-working reporter, dared to ask McSally whether new information surfacing about the conduct for which Trump has been impeached should lead GOP senators to admit new evidence at his impeachment trial.
McSally snidely brushed off the question and called Raju a “liberal hack.” Raju then tweeted a neutral description of what had happened.
And?
“chilling” ?
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) January 16, 2020
Chilling pic.twitter.com/t6QoPO1oKw
— Kelly (@Kisouttahere) January 16, 2020
— GIST Survivor?✝?? (@lastaudt) January 16, 2020
“Chilling” good god you’re lame.
— Paul #BillsMafia (@BillsMafia326) January 16, 2020
"chilling"? Oh my gawd, dude. How are we supposed to take you people seriously?
— Chris (@CML_Texas) January 16, 2020
lmfao "chilling" get over yourselves. You literally spent a week and a full series of articles describing in detail that much of the media are hacks. Now you're clutching your pearls because a politician said something that any reader of yours has known for a long time?
— TdoubleA (@TeedoubleA) January 16, 2020
— CTIronman (@CTIronman) January 16, 2020
“Chilling insult”
Good Lord you people are soft
— Mauty480 (@Mauty480) January 16, 2020
Oooooo, so chilling. As if the media is deserving of deference.
— Steve Wallace (@waldo559) January 16, 2020
"Chilling."
Clown. Shoes.
— HoodlumDoodlum (@HoodlumDoodlum) January 16, 2020
"Chilling insult"?
My gosh you journos have such thin skin. https://t.co/HjWN1vEoIP
— Douglas Patch (@DouglasPatch) January 16, 2020
Seriously?
— John Hog Hannah (@JohnHogHannah1) January 16, 2020
— AmyS (@amyds1998) January 16, 2020
— Ed Holmstrom (@ed_holmstrom) January 16, 2020
Oh, yes. Very frightening. Like being mauled by a guinea pig.
— Jay Collinwood (@Jaycollinwood) January 16, 2020
"Nasty meltdown"
Nice misogynistic language
— Ross (@MtRosssMore) January 16, 2020
"Nasty meltdown" "unbecoming"
Noticing a theme in all the criticism https://t.co/4a3Q1F1c4C
— Jesse Hunt (@JJHunt10) January 16, 2020
Nice that you call this woman "trashy". That's the cherry on top!
— Chris (@CML_Texas) January 16, 2020
Can you also do when Menendez called a Daily Caller reporter "trash"?
— InMyHumbleOpinion (@IMHO1969) January 16, 2020
Maybe all of the D.C. correspondents should swap with war correspondents overseas for three months to toughen them up.
Related:
CNN’s Josh Rogin calls Martha McSally’s ‘liberal hack’ comment an insult to the seat she inherited from John McCain https://t.co/Esz6iTDJJs
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 16, 2020
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