Following a disappointing night full of failures (and some highs) for Republicans, the Wednesday morning’s broadcast network news shows each moments of gloating and outright laughter that included claims such as country was reminded to not “bet against Joe Biden,” that January 6 mattered, and voters bought the narrative that Republicans were tied to the Paul Pelosi attack.
On CBS Mornings, White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe had just finished arguing that President Biden did well in areas where candidates embraced him and poorly in areas where he didn’t go (which wasn’t true considering his stops in Florida for the hapless Democratic ticket) when he argued Tuesday’s takeaway was “don’t bet against Biden.”
Co-host Nate Burleson was ebullient in adding: “Don’t bet against Biden!” O’Keefe piled on, adding that Biden “always finds a way” to get the job done and that’ll likely be a message the Biden administration will push in the coming days.
Co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King was also in a great mood as she mocked Republicans and drew a chuckle from chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes: “But let the jokes begin about the red wave. I've heard it called, you know, the red sprinkler, heard it called the red splash, the red puddle. Needless to say, there was not this red wave, not this red tsunami.”
Moments later, O’Keefe predicted that, in the end, Biden’s closing focus on “democracy” will have mattered: “[T]here will probably be some indication that the President's focus in the closing days on issues like democracy, reminding people what had happened on January 6th may have also helped close the gap with independents.”
That mirrored nonsense from the next block as January 6 correspondent Scott MacFarlane held up faux Republican Liz Cheney’s endorsement of Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) as key to the latter’s win and that January 6 and its causes affected voters.
Over on ABC’s Good Morning America, ABC News contributor and former DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile also drew laughs from her fellow liberals on-set masquerading as journalists after co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos remarked that she “talk[ed] up a good game” early Tuesday:
Well, one of the reasons why I decided after I talked to you, George, to get a red jacket because I saw the only red wave possible for Chris today was what I was wearing. It was a trickle. It was a trickle. No question. And look, Democrats defied expectations. Democrats defied historical norms. I mean, Joe Biden said it was going to be a choice. It was a choice. We saw a good turnout, early turnout, in-person turnout.
NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd had an explanation for why Democrats did so well and Republicans so poorly. While many prognosticators have blamed Donald Trump, Todd’s other point showed the liberal media’s poisonous propaganda despite no evidence to support it:
There was the attack on Paul Pelosi. And I don't think that was an insignificant moment for a lot of voters. We actually saw a tone change with voters in our poll, post-the attack where voters in their message say — they said what message would you send with your vote? And they said, hey, end — end — end the partisanship, try to tone things down. Even Republicans were saying that in previous to the Pelosi attack, we weren't — it was only a one-sided conversation.
While the alleged attacker ranted about censorship and Q-Anon on his blog, the mentally ill, former Green Party supporter, and nudist who argued there are half-alien, half-human creatures in our midst had nothing to do with House Republicans.
Wednesday’s gloating was made possible thanks to advertisers such as Jergens (on ABC), Kohl’s (on NBC), and Nature’s Bounty (on CBS). Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcripts from November 9, click “expand.”
ABC’s Good Morning America
November 9, 2022
7:36 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Too Close to Call; Control of House & Senate Still Up for Grabs with Key Races Undecided]
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Donna, you were talking up a good game. You turned out to be more right than wrong.
DONNA BRAZILE: Well, one of the reasons why I decided after I talked to you, George, to get a red jacket because I saw the only red wave possible for Chris today was what I was wearing. It was a trickle. [ROOM LAUGHS] It was a trickle. No question. And look, Democrats defied expectations. Democrats defied historical norms. I mean, Joe Biden said it was going to be a choice. It was a choice. We saw a good turnout, early turnout, in-person turnout. We were competitive, but I'm very disappointed about North Carolina. I'm disappointed about Florida. I'm disappointed about Stacey Abrams, but I'm so excited that Maggie won. I'm excited --
STEPHANOPOULOS: In New Hampshire.
BRAZILE: — in New Hampshire. There’s no question about it. And John Fetterman, I mean, come on. This is a guy who showed up at a debate and everybody said, oh, no, he'll never win but, you know, the lieutenant governor of — of — of Pennsylvania knew how to go to every county and get every vote out there, so it was a good night for Democrats.
(....)
7:38 a.m. Eastern
BRAZILE: Well, Democrats know how to win in Georgia. We've proven that over and over again. We've proven it, of course, in 2020. We'll prove it again in 2021. We'll prove it in 2022. Stacey Abrams may have fallen short yesterday.
CHRIS CHRISTIE: Yes, she did.
BRAZILE: But what she did was she planted the seeds for a Democratic victory especially in a runoff. But look, you got to — you got to admit that Democrats know how to walk and chew gum. We knew how to address the economy, address inflation, and also talk about freedom being on the ballot.
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CBS Mornings
November 9, 2022
7:30 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: America Decides Campaign ‘22; Control of Congress Up for Grabs]
NATE BURLESON: Let's bring in our top White House correspondents, Ed O’Keefe and Nancy Cordes, two political pros that belong in the White House hall of fame, to break this all down. Nancy, it's a better night than expected for the Democrats. What are you hearing from the White House?
NANCY CORDES: Oh, big change of mood from the White House in the past 24 hours. Yesterday, they were trying to pre-explain why wouldn't be a big deal if they lost a bunch of seats.
BURELSON: Mmm.
CORDES: Now they're saying, wait, maybe we didn't lose a bunch of seats.
BURLESON: Yeah.
CORDES: Maybe we lost a handful. They're saying they feel excitement mixed with some validation because they managed, they think, to buck a historic trend. They didn't lose dozens of seats the way previous presidents have.
ED O’KEEFE: And we were calling out the fact that the President didn't go everywhere or the places he went seemed a little off given where we thought the battlegrounds were.
GAYLE KING: But people didn’t —
O’KEEFE: Well, all the different places --
KING: — want him to come, Ed, though. People didn’t want him to come, though.
O’KEEFE: — and the ones who didn't are the ones struggling. But where he did go —
KING: Uh-huh.
O’KEEFE: — they held on.
BURLESON: Wow.
O’KEEFE: All right? And you know, it's a signal to — John Fetterman especially. There was somebody who completely —
KING: Yes.
O’KEEFE: — embraced the Biden legacy, the Biden White House, said come on down and help me out.
KING: Yes.
O’KEEFE: He came, former President Obama came, and he eked it out. Bunch of races he went to in New Mexico and California and Illinois, and other places like that, we went, why are you going there?
KING: Yeah.
O’KEEFE: Kathy Hochul here in New York.
KING: Yes. Yes.
O’KEEFE: — twice he came to help her, and she pulled it off. So, the lesson is —
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: Tim Ryan, no.
O’KEEFE: — don't bet against Joe Biden.
BURLESON: Don’t bet against Biden!
O’KEEFE: Politically, the guy always finds a way it seems.
DUTHIERS: Mmm.
O’KEEFE: And that's what the White House is preparing privately, maybe he'll say publicly at some point.
KING: It will be interesting to see.
O’KEEFE: He knows what he’s doing.
KING: — what he has to say. We're expecting to hear from him at some point today. But let the jokes begin about the red wave. I've heard it called, you know, the red sprinkler — [NANCY CORDS CHUCKLES] — heard it called the red splash, the red puddle. Needless to say, there was not this red wave, not this red tsunami.
O’KEEFE: No.
KING: So did you see anything earlier in the evening that might have indicated that this is how it would turn out?
O’KEEFE: Yeah.
KING: You did?
O’KEEFE: There were in races in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Indiana, Virginia. They said, look, we're going to win those early, it's going to be the start of it. None of it materialized. They got one race in Virginia where Donald Trump had won pretty easily back in 2020. Otherwise, the Democrats prevailed in all those other races, and there were parts of the country where they were anticipating being able to take districts that had been Democratic for decades or for, like, 100 years, down in Texas, for example. And it just didn't materialize. Democrats saying, look, midterm voting patterns in these parts of the country at least stayed the same. Abortion clearly was a factor.
KING: Mmhmm.
O’KEEFE: You saw them playing that up.
BURLESON: Yep.
O’KEEFE: And
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NBC’s Today
November 9, 2022
8:06 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Decision 2022; House and Senate Still Hang in the Balance]
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: You had the fundamentals, including —
CRAIG MELVIN: Yeah.
GUTHRIE: — history as well that would say, oh, you will see a big Republican —
TODD: Right.
GUTHRIE: — sweep here in the House and perhaps the Senate. We haven't seen that yet. Republicans may well take control of the House. We'll see what happens in the Senate. It’s hanging by a thread. But why do you think that Republican wave did not materialize as Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator, said?
CHUCK TODD: I — I — you got to go back to Donald Trump. It is the one — I keep going back. What changed in the last ten days? Two things changed in the last ten days. There was the attack on Paul Pelosi.
HODA KOTB: Uh-huh
TODD: And I don't think that was an insignificant moment for a lot of voters. We actually saw a tone change with voters in our poll, post-the attack where voters in their message say — they said what message would you send with your vote? And they said, hey, end — end — end the partisanship, try to tone things down. Even Republicans were saying that in previous to the Pelosi attack, we weren't — it was only a one-sided conversation. And then Donald Trump in the last weekend. And he does — when you look at Democrats — the re — it wasn't just Republicans who felt good. Democrats were panicking because they didn't think they were getting the African American turnout they were going to get. They — certainly didn't think they were going to get the youth turnout. And then lo and behold, what happened yesterday? There was Election Day Democratic voters. Okay, these are people that decided they didn't want to vote early.
MELVIN: Mmm.
TODD: They — they got motivated to vote. Well, what happened? Donald Trump was on the trail and he is — he — he is sort of a negative motivator, if you will, and he, I think, motivated and got the Democratic base up enough. Independents ended up — we wondered, what was more toxic to the middle? The woke left or the Trump right?
CRAIG MELVIN: Mmmm.
TODD: I think last night the answer that independents said, we may not like the woke left, but the Trump right right now is more of a danger to us.
