On Thursday night’s Piers Morgan Tonight, host Piers Morgan ended his fluffy interview with former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) by encouraging her to run for higher office.
The interview started off in typical Morgan fashion with the former editor of the left-wing Daily Mirror newspaper distorting the facts on the auto bailout in reference to an interview New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) did on Thursday’s episode of Morning Joe on MSNBC: “And the conclusion I drew was he didn't say what he really wanted to say, which is actually the bailout has been a good thing.” [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
The two then went on to slam the Republican candidates running for president with Morgan going so far as saying, “Let's take a little listen to some of the rhetoric about President Obama from the candidates last night. It got pretty extreme, I thought.”
The entire Granholm interview was peppered with softball questions aimed at propping up the Democratic platform and a future Granholm political career while at the same time slandering Republicans as extreme.
The interview sounded more like a Democratic strategy session, as Piers Morgan smugly misrepresented the positions of the four Republican candidates running for president, even suggesting that Granholm herself should seek “higher office.” Such biased reporting has become a nightly fixture at Piers Morgan Tonight, and we should no longer be surprised at the liberal rhetoric Morgan spews on a nightly basis.
Below is the relevant transcript:
Piers Morgan Tonight
02/24/2012
9:03 p.m.
PIERS MORGAN: But we begin with our big story, the race for the White House. As far as the GOP is concerned, it could all come down to Michigan's primary on Tuesday. And joining me now a woman who knows quite a lot about the state's politics in Michigan, former Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm.
Governor, welcome. How are you?
JENNIFER GRANHOLM (D), FORMER MICHIGAN GOVERNOR: I'm great. How are you doing, Piers?
MORGAN: I'm good. I'm sort of befuddled after last night's debate. I watched it with wrapped interest but in the end decided I couldn't work out who on earth is going to win this race.
GRANHOLM: Well, I wish I could tell you but I can tell you that certainly whatever happens in Michigan is going to be determinative, I think, for whether there is a brokered convention or whether Romney takes it all the way.
MORGAN: Yes, I mean, it seems to me if you lose in your own backyard, which Michigan would be to Mitt Romney, it's an area he grew up in. If you lose there, that's a big problem if you are presumed to be a frontrunner, right?
GRANHOLM: For sure. For sure. And in Michigan, you know, the whole thing with the auto industry, it cuts both ways in a Republican primary, understandably. But in a general election, it is a killer. I mean in Michigan, if Romney or Santorum go up against Obama, at least if you believe the polls as of today, they would get trounced by a larger than double digit margins. So while in the primary for the Republican, it's a bit more split, 44 percent of the Republican primary electorate believe that it was a good thing in Michigan. I think in a general election, it's over.
MORGAN: I don't know if you saw my interview with Chris Christie, but I was baffled by -- although he's a very impressive man in many ways and is always a great interview. He just refused to talk about the bailout of the car industry or indeed the car industry at all. And the conclusion I drew was he didn't say what he really wanted to say, which is actually the bailout has been a good thing. There was reluctance to give President Obama the praise that many believe he deserves for what he did with that bailout.
GRANHOLM: Well, of course, he saved 1.4 million jobs. GM is number one. It's back on top. GM and Chrysler making profits, bigger profits than they've made -- for the past decade and a half. It's an unequivocal success. And it gets back to this issue about the Republicans sort of rooting for failure. If they hadn't -- if the president hand not stepped in to save General Motors and Chrysler, it would not have been a managed bankruptcy. As much as Mitt Romney wants to tell everybody that there would have been or there should have been a managed bankruptcy, it would not have been that because there was no private entity that was willing to put up the money to save General Motors and Chrysler in the middle of a financial meltdown. It would have been a liquidation. And if that had happened, unemployment in Michigan and throughout the industrial Midwest would have been through the roof. In Michigan, it would have been 20 percent. There is no question that this was a success.
MORGAN: Yes, it's still a great vote, it seems to me, to just keep repeating, I would have let Detroit go bust. I just don't think there's a lot of -- a lot of votes out there for that campaign.
GRANHOLM: Well, and in addition to that, I mean, Mitt Romney -- Mitt Romney supported the bailout of the financial industry but didn't support the bailout of an industry that is critical to blue-collar America. And so how do you justify the treatment other than the sort of background that Mitt Romney has which is coming from the financial industry. And by the way, I thought I read in "The New York Times" the other day that Bain Capital, his company was one of the companies that was -- that General Motors or Chrysler went to to ask whether they would be willing to step in and help with a managed bankruptcy, and they turned them down. There was no willingness to do that. So, bottom line is, when you support a bailout of the financial industry and you don't support the bailout of a mainstream industry that provides jobs all across America, you're hurting.
MORGAN: Let's take a little listen to some of the rhetoric about President Obama from the candidates last night. It got pretty extreme, I thought.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY: I don't think we've seen in the history of this country, the kind of attack on religious conscience, religious freedom, religious tolerance that we've seen under Barack Obama.
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's afraid to stand- up to Iran. He opposed the sanctions in Iran against the -- against the central banks until his own party finally said you're killing us. Please support these sanctions.
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think this is a very sober period. And I believe this is the most dangerous president on national security grounds in American history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: So he's the weakest, most dangerous president in history. Maybe even the most dangerous human being. How do you answer that charge?
GRANHOLM: Well, you know, it just makes me laugh out loud. I mean Newt Gingrich, the most dangerous in history. I mean his sense of hyperbole knows no bounds. I'll just say that. I heard David Axelrod on earlier and he was saying that I'm sure that Osama bin Laden, if he were alive, would provide a good rebuttal to that.
MORGAN: What strikes me as slightly unusual about this particular election battle going on is the rhetoric about religion. It seems to me to be more religious the debate than any I can remember in recent years certainly. Why do you think that is and how will this play out?
GRANHOLM: Well, I certainly think it's driven by the presence of Rick Santorum. Clearly Mitt Romney does not want to be talking about religion. And that's not his strength. He wants to be talking about the economy. But that's not giving him a whole lot to talk about anymore as the unemployment number has continued to drop and as the stock market continues to soar. And the manufacturing sector continues to come back. So that's all -- all that's left is this war on religion, as they say, which ends up, of course, being a war on women's reproductive freedom. And that's not a good argument in a general election, either, when you've got, you know, these governors across the country who are rushing legislation through their legislatures that end up depriving women of not just choice, but, you know, the stuff that was happening in Virginia for example. These transvaginal ultrasounds. I mean it's shocking, this war that's happening. That's not really a great argument in a general election either. Frankly, all of this I think bodes well for President Obama.
MORGAN: Yeah. I mean it did strike me very, very noticeably last night that this whole debate about abortion, about contraception would be massively enhanced on the Republican side if any of the people contributing were women or women who had any kind of sense that this might not be a smart move for them.
GRANHOLM: Well, this is why, honestly, Piers, we need more women in elected office. It's just crazy. You know, the Congressmen Issa hearing when there was no women present, and of course they were talking about something that's near and dear to most women, it's -- it is really -- I think women in America are waking up. And I think you're seeing it play out across the country that we realized that this -- that we have to have more women's voices, not just in executive offices but in legislative offices as well. And I hope it certainly exhorts people, women, to serve their country.
MORGAN: Well, many think that you should be serving us in higher office, Jennifer Granholm, so I hope you give that some serious thought. It's been a pleasure talking to you again.
GRANHOLM: Well, nice to talk with you, too. Thanks, Piers.
