CNN has made it no secret that they long for the day that a leftist president or extremist Congress smash Fox News, their largest competitor, and ban them from existence. But when North Carolina Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx simply told an ABC reporter to “shut up” and “go away,” CNN chief national correspondent John King wailed on Wednesday that it was ALL Republicans who were “anti-free speech” and “anti-democratic.”
As the House was in the process of electing Republican Congressman Mike Johnson (LA) to be speaker, King popped off about Foxx and proclaimed his opinion was absolute “fact” and suggested the GOP couldn’t handle living in America:
Congresswoman Foxx said shut up to the reporter who asked that question. It's anti-democratic. They are anti-democratic. They simply are. That's a fact. And they are anti-free speech. They’re anti-question. They don't like questions that they don't like. They don't want to answer questions that they don't like. Well, sorry. Welcome to America. That's the great charm of the American experiment that we ask questions – that people get to ask these questions.
The only way Republicans were anti-democratic was if the “D” was capitalized; the same way CNN and the rest of the liberal media were anti-Republican.
Proving that point, King’s follow-up comments were all about rhetorically scoffing at Republicans’ ability to govern through the budget and continuing resolution negotiations:
So now, the plan is either January or April, he says he’ll go into the conference. They’ll elect him speaker and then he’ll go into a room and say, “What do we want January or April?” Okay. If he gets one of those two, so January, just when they’re starting the presidential nominating process or April, when actually the primary season is kicking into a higher gear where all of these House Republicans have to go home and – you know, most of them don't have primary challenges, but that's all they worry about. 90 percent of them only worry about being challenged from the right.
King’s undies were in a bind over a Republican telling a reporter to “shut up,” but he didn’t clench a glute last year when President Biden called Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy “a stupid son of a bitch.” Obviously, a much more hostile comment to launch at a journalist.
His bloviating that only Republicans “don't want to answer questions that they don't like” was ridiculous since Biden (and most politicians, for that matter) hated answering those too. Back in August, Biden lashed out at Doocy for daring to ask a question about sworn testimony that implicated him in his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings. The President called it a “lousy question.”
All of it was just lousy analysis from King.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Inside Politics
October 25, 2023
12:11:20 p.m. Eastern(…)
GLORIA BORGER: And quite frankly, part of this is the complete exhaustion on the part of the Republicans and the recognition that they look like clowns for the last few weeks and that they had to do something. And in the Republican caucus, somebody who denied the election it’s okay, it’s okay. Not for those members who won in the Biden districts, perhaps, but for most of them, it's okay. Which is why when the journalists asked a question about it last night, she got booed because they are like, “that's over. We don't want to deal with it anymore. Tabula rasa.”
And who’s better to start with a clean slate than someone we don't know really well.
JOHN KING: And yet – And the fact that the one – Congresswoman Foxx said shut up to the reporter who asked that question.
BORGER: Right. Yes, shut up
KING: It's anti-democratic. They are anti-democratic. They simply are. That's a fact. And they are anti-free speech. They’re anti-question. They don't like questions that they don't like. They don't want to answer questions that they don't like. Well, sorry. Welcome to America. That's the great charm of the American experiment that we ask questions – that people get to ask these questions.
But going forward. To David’s point. So, soon-to-be Speaker Johnson it appears was against this continuing resolution, which – forgive me America – is the Washington speak for keeping your government open because they can't pass an actual budget.
So now, the plan is either January or April, he says he’ll go into the conference. They’ll elect him speaker and then he’ll go into a room and say, “What so we want January or April?” Okay. If he gets one of those two, so January, just when they’re starting the presidential nominating process or April, when actually the primary season is kicking into a higher gear where all of these House Republicans have to go home and – you know, most of them don't have primary challenges, but that's all they worry about. 90 percent of them only worry about being challenged from the right.
(…)
