CNN's morning analogy: Republicans are pigs.
CNN's New Day devoted its opening segment Thursday morning to worrying that Republicans will attempt to politicize 1/6 hearings and turn them into a spectacle. Unlike those Democrats, who as we know, never politicize hearings! And CNN sympathized with the Democrats' decision to hold many of the hearings behind closed doors.
Co-host John Berman invited on ex-Republican Joe Walsh, introduced as a former "presidential candidate." Who remembers? Walsh made a fleeting appearance in the 2020 Republican race, dropping out posting a paltry 1% in the Iowa caucuses.
Walsh is the ultimate political chameleon, changing from moderate, to conservative, to Tea Party activist, to big Trump supporter, to anti-Trump, to ultimately announcing he was voting for Biden and working to elect Democrats. His repeated pitch was that in the hearings, Dems should be "unafraid" to take on the Republicans.
That led John Berman to say:
"The problem, though, as they used to say to me growing up on the farm, Joe, is the thing is when you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it. The Republicans, as you say, they want this to be dirty."
As for "growing up on the farm," perhaps Berman spent some summers on one. But his bio indicates that he is a native of the tony Boston burb of Carlisle—average household income $244,544. He attended super-preppy Phillips Andover, followed by Harvard. Pa wrestled the pig in the Hahvahd Yahd?
Plus: reporter Lauren Fox claimed that Pelosi appointed Liz Cheney to the committee, "to make sure this doesn’t look like a partisan circus." Admire Cheney or not, Fox surely can't believe that Republicans will be comforted by Pelosi's appointment of Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump and has roundly condemned him!
Here's the video of CNN reporter Lauren Fox repeatedly channeling all of the Democrat chatter that Republicans will politicize the 1/6 hearings. "Whether or not Democrats can keep this from becoming a political circus, they’re going to try really hard and they’re very conscious of that."
CNN's John Berman warning Democrats against wrestling with the Republican "pig" was sponsored in part by Arby's, Angi [formerly Angie's List], and GoodRX.
Here's the transcript.
CNN
New Day
7/8/21
6:00 am EDTJOHN BERMAN: We begin with brand-new reporting about the Capitol insurrection and the Democrats' strategy to investigate it. Sources tell CNN that Democrats are making a conscious effort to avoid turning the probe into a spectacle. Something that they think Republicans might attempt to do. Democrats are also looking to keep some of the work they do behind closed doors.
. . .
LAUREN FOX: Look, the committee has met twice behind closed doors to try to sort out how they are going to move forward in investigating what happened on January 6th. One thing that they’re very conscious of, very aware of, is that Republicans are going to try to make this a spectacle as quickly as they can . . . They’re very conscious of the fact that select committees like the Benghazi select committee became something that was a political firework every time they had a public hearing. Some of the work that they want to do is going to happen behind closed doors . . . They’re also aware of the fact that to get some new information, to actually break through what happened on January 6th, how these people were able to communicate ahead of this event, they need to have some real investigations that happen behind closed doors . . Whether or not Democrats can keep this from becoming a political circus, they’re going to try really hard and they’re very conscious of that.
. . .
And we should also note that Pelosi, in trying to make sure this doesn’t look like a partisan circus, has Liz Cheney that she appointed to this committee. That was a very conscious decision to send a message to some of her moderate members.
. . .
JOE WALSH: The Democrats shouldn’t be afraid, Brianna, to look into that truth, because that truth is that Donald Trump and the Republicans, the big lie, led to the why, to why people were there. I think Democrats really need to be unafraid here to pursue the truth.
BERMAN: The problem, though is, as they used to say to me growing up on the farm, Joe, is that the thing is when you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty, and the pig likes it. The Republicans, as you say, they want this to be dirty.
