With the shaming of Nancy Pelosi et. al, the liberal media, including Latino Nets, turned their attention to dissenting Republican Mitt Romney, giving the former GOP presidential nominee the hero's treatment after he broke party lines by voting “guilty” on the impeachment article of abuse of power against President Donald Trump.
Take a look at this video from CNN en Español´s Directo USA, where anchor Juan Carlos Lopez invited Democrat analyst and CNN collaborator María Cardona (along with Hector Barreto, of the Latino Coalition) over to discuss President Trump's acquittal:
JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ: Maria, this announcement changed the plans of the White House. Did you know, from what our colleagues are reporting from the White House, they were taken by surprise by Mitt Romney's announcement, who explained in a Fox network interview, the reasons why he decided to take this vote and decided to oppose his party, although Mitt Romney, at a professional level, and at a personal, can afford to be independent.
MARÍA CARDONA: Yes, that's right Juan Carlos, it's that you see many Democrats thanking Mitt Romney for at least being aware of, for having, representing his values, representing his principles and not being afraid of Donald Trump. Because it seems that his 51 other colleagues still dread this president, something like I've never seen before.
In addition to framing his question by saying that “Mitt Romney, professionally and personally, can afford to be independent”, Lopez offered no pushback at all to Cardona’s vitriolic dismissal of all Republicans as “zombies” who act on fear of the almighty and powerful Donald Trump, that is, excluding Mitt, of course.
Cardona insisted that Republicans acted not according to their convictions, but out of fear of the President. According to the CNN collaborator, the difference between the Democrats and today's Republicans is “that Republicans are not able to defend American values, their principles, against their fear of this president”, waxing lyrical of the Democrats´ (plus Romney´s) “duty to the constitution and commitment to our democracy first, before their political interests.”
The democratic strategist was granted two-and-a-half minutes at Directo USA for her monologue, where she desperately defended both Nancy Pelosi and her rationale for pursuing the president's impeachment, with zero pushback or follow-up questions from the CNN anchor.
According to Cardona, who merely parroted the Democrat talking points regarding Trump's acquittal, the House had “overwhelming first hand evidence that this president abused his power.” “She (Pelosi) came into this because she understood the gravity of that call the President made to the president of Ukraine. The bribery, blackmail, the extortion that this president tried to break against the president of Ukraine, that's against the constitution, it's against the law. She (Pelosi) didn't want to do that but what did she and the other Democrats who voted with her and in that article specifically, Mitt Romney did as well”.
For a network that once bombarded Romney for his “antimmigrant policies”, such an about-face only confirms how spineless they are when it comes to pushing their own political agenda.
Click "expand" to read the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on CNN en Español´s Directo USA on Wednesday, February 5, 2020:
JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ: One of the figures that generates the biggest reactions from President Trump, Hilary Clinton, the secretary of state, and Trumps rival in the presidential election, says:
As the president´s impeachment trial began, Republican senators pledged an oath to defend the Constitution. Today, 52 of the voted to betray that oath – and all of us. We´re entering dangerous territory for our democracy. It´ll take all of us working together to restore it.
Hector, Mitt Romney's decision to break ranks is significant. For example, the president said on social media calling for Romney to be expelled from the Republican conference, that there were debates about warnings to senators not to vote against the President. He mentioned Maria, umm, seven senators said that what the President did in the call with the president of Ukraine, was inappropriate.
But President Trump certainly believed it was going to happen. How much does the situation change for President Trump that he did not allow a reception for Juan Guaidó, Venezuela's interim president, recognized by more than 60 countries, but he surprisingly cancelled his appearance before the media. The White House says it wasn't because of this announcement. But it is clear that the announcement caused surprise and changed the White House's action plan to respond to the president's acquittal.
HECTOR BARRETO: Yes, look, what we saw last night, is we're looking at what the economy is going to be all about. What the election is going to deal with, which is going to be the economy. People are going to have to decide whether they want to stick with this president or not. Obviously, this was a distraction, it took months, it took a long time, it took millions of dollars. I think people, voters, are tired of that. I don't think we're going to be talking about that in a week. We're going to be talking about the Democrats, the election, about other things.
But look, the founders of this country made it very difficult, because they didn't want this to be a political weapon, to get rid of someone you don't want, you don't agree, you're against their policies. That power belongs to the voters of the United States; they're going to make their decision. There's a reason Nancy Pelosi didn't want to go down that road because she knew what was going to happen. She is a very capable person, very intelligent, very strong. But she didn't want to do this, she had to because there was a lot of pressure inside her chamber to try to hurt this president. But we already knew what was going to happen, we're going to get on with other things, and the election goes on.
LOPEZ: MMaria, this announcement changed the plans of the White House. Did you know, from what our colleagues are reporting from the White House, they were taken by surprise by Mitt Romney´s announcement, who explained in a Fox network interview, the reasons why he decided to take this vote and decided to oppose his party, although Mitt Romney, at a professional level, and at a personal, can afford to be independent.
MARIA CARDONA: Yes, that's Juan Carlos, it's that you see many Democrats thanking Mitt Romney for at least being aware of, for having, representing their values, representing their principles and not being afraid of Donald Trump. Because it seems that his 51 other colleagues still dread this president, like I have never seen before, especially considering the actions taken by this president and that the House of Representatives proved with overwhelmingly first hand evidence that this president abused his power. And, so, Mitt Romney seems to be the only one capable of understanding this, of accepting that yes, that this president, abused his power, and that we must say it, and that we must face that reality, to defend the constitution, to defend our values.
Hector's right. The president of the chamber, Nancy Pelosi, didn't want to get into this. But what I do disagree with, is that's she came into this, not because of the pressure from her members of the House Democratic group. She came into this because she understood the gravity of that call the President made to the president of Ukraine. The bribery, blackmail, the extortion that this president tried to break against the president of Ukraine, that's against the constitution, it's against the law. She didn't want to do that but what did she and the other Democrats who voted with her and in that article specifically, Mitt Romney did as well. They did their duty to the constitution and commitment to our democracy first, before their political interests knowing that this was going to be, it could be a very difficult decision for many Democrats in the House of Representatives.
But therein lies the difference, between Democrats, right now, and today's Republicans. That Republicans are not able to defend American values, their principles, against their fear of this president.
