The journalists at CBS This Morning on Wednesday conducted a mostly softball interview with one of the most liberal Congressmen in the House. When Representative Jerry Nadler casually insisted that the Trump administration is “willing to have” “kids dying” at the border, the hosts didn’t object to this attack.
Instead, Anthony Mason quizzed the Democrat on impeachment: “You are about to take over the Judiciary Committee and you've said that impeachment hearings are something that you only resort to in most extreme circumstances. In your view, what are those circumstances?”
Earlier, Nadler slimed anyone who supports building a wall, saying, “So what this shutdown is, really, is an extremist policy designed to appeal to an extremist base and hold the whole country hostage.” The hosts at CBS could have pointed out that Nadler’s own base, the New York’s 10th congressional district, is D+26 in partisan ID. That sounds potentially extremist. But no one mentioned this fact.
The Congressman declared the Trump administration as being fine with “kids dying”: “You still have kids who haven't been returned to their parents after months. This is inhuman.... And if kids die, they're apparently willing to have that.”
In September of 2018, This Morning’s O’Donnell demanded to know if Ken Starr would apologize for what he put Monica Lewinsky through with supposed intemperate language. But no one asked Nadler for an apology on Wednesday.
However, Mason did at least offer this challenge, noting his history of feuding with the President:
ANTHONY MASON: You have a long and very contentious history with this president. He once called you one of the most egregious hacks in contemporary politics.
REP. JERRY NADLER: I regard that as a badge of honor.
A patrial transcript is below. Click “expand” for more.
CBS This Morning
1/2/19
8:04:58 to 8:10:54NORAH O’DONNELL: The new congress will be sworn in tomorrow. Republicans will have a larger majority in the Senate while Democrats will control the House for the first time in eight years. New York congressman Jerry Nadler will become chairman of the Judiciary Committee which has the power to subpoena witnesses and President Trump and his administration. Congressman Nadler, good morning and happy new year.
CONGRESSMAN JERRY NADLER (D-NY): Good morning and happy new year.
O’DONNELL: So, we know we are in day 12 of the shutdown. What's the plan that the Democrats are going to present to the President?
...
NADLER: He [Trump] is being abandoned by his own Secretary of Defense, by his former campaign manager.
O’DONNELL: Well he was abandoned by his own party. The Republicans did control the House in the last. But let's talk about this —
NADLER: But these are people who have left him who are testifying against him. And whenever he feels beleaguered returns to his base. So what this shutdown is, really, is an extremist policy designed to appeal to an extremist base and hold the whole country hostage.
O’DONNELL: So if you can separate those bills, have the Department of Homeland Security one which will include the fight over the border wall funding, do you think that the President will sign that and this shutdown could be over for all those other agencies by Thursday?
...
ANTHONY MASON: Is there any budge on the Democratic side on a border wall?
NADLER: Not really at this point.
MASON: That suggests there might be on another point?
NADLER: I don't know that. I don't know that.
O’DONNELL: The Department of Homeland Security —
...
MICHELLE MILLER: You've had a second child die at the border. Certainly, it’s escalated the blame game. How do you fix that? Because that is really the crux of the problem here. These two sides not being able to sit down with one another.
...
NADLER: You still have kids who haven't been returned to their parents after months. This is inhuman and it's not precedented. It's a deliberate creation of the trump administration which is trying to make things as miserable as possible. And if kids die, they're apparently willing to have that.
MASON: Do you — you have a long and very contentious history with this president. He once called you one of the most egregious hacks in contemporary politics.
NADLER: I regard that as a badge of honor.
MASON: You are about to take over the Judiciary Committee and you've said that impeachment hearings are something that you only resort to in most extreme circumstances. In your view, what are those circumstances?
...
