Mark Halperin has ripped the MSM for its "outrageous" treatment of Bernie Sanders. Calling the media "lemmings," Halperin, seconded by John Heilemann, said on today's With All Due Respect, that the Hillary campaign has ginned up "faux outrage" over a number of Sanders' statements, and that the media has been "following it around," treating minor matters like "major contretemps."
Halperin also had a warning for Republicans: 'just wait until a general election if Hillary Clinton is the nominee at how much faux outrage her campaign shows over whoever the Republicans nominate." That comes as no surprise, but still refreshing to hear Halperin say it.
MARK HALPERIN: Bernie Sanders leaves the Motor City in his rearview mirror. But some of the Michigan news coverage that went national may well follow him to Florida and the other states voting next week and where there is a Democratic debate tomorrow.
It's more just the way he struggled to clarify his position on the auto industry bailout money, which Clinton cleverly mischaracterized on the debate stage. There was also saying that thing Sanders said about not knowing "what it's like to be living in a ghetto," which the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis criticized as racially offensive in statements released by Hillary Clinton's campaign. There was also the way Sanders interrupted Clinton several times during the debate after she interrupted him, often. Which her aides successfully convinced the press was disrespectful.
So John, you can tell by the way I'm setting this up that I think Bernie Sanders got a bum rap to some extent. But my question is, are these flaps things that were actual mistakes in some way by Sanders, or is the Clinton campaign just effectively and aggressively spinning them that way because Sanders is now seen as weak and fading, and when you're weak and fading, more stuff sticks to you?
JOHN HEILEMANN: Well, I'm largely with you, Mark, in that I think that these are things that are, in many cases, are things that Sanders is being held to a very high standard on, and is being prosecuted aggressively by the Clinton campaign. Some of these things, if he were a winner and the scrutiny was very intense on, he would probably have gotten dinged for some of those things also. But look, the Clinton campaign is very good at bringing the case --
HALPERIN: Faux outrage! Faux outrage! They're very good at faux outrage.
HEILEMANN: They are. They're great at faux outrage. The more faux, the better. They're very good at it and they've done it very well. And I think there's no question part of this is the Haley Barbourism of good gets better and bad gets worse. And for Bernie Sanders right now, he's in a bad gets worse spiral.
HALPERIN: Just wait until a general election if Hillary Clinton is the nominee at how much faux outrage her campaign shows over whoever the Republicans nominate. I think the treatment of Bernie Sanders over the last couple days has been outrageous. The media is just following itself around, lemmings all. Treating things that would not get coverage and in some cases should not have gotten coverage, like they're major contretemps. And he's being asked about them. They're dominating. He's frustrated, and rightfully so. I'm not siding with Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in some cosmic way, but what her campaign has done, totally within the rules, is not the issue. The issue is the media, which has treated him horribly and made it tougher for him to much tougher for him to compete in a fair way in this primary.
