Wednesday at CNBC’s Republican presidential debate, CNBC chief Washington correspondent John Harwood asked Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, “Is this a comic book version of the president?” Harwood said, “Mr. Trump, you have done very well in this campaign so
Consumers of political news should understand that the biases of debate moderators are highly relevant. It doesn’t mean moderators with strong views are incapable of running a good debate, but the networks really ought to make portfolios of their moderators’ political history available for easy public consumption. It is fair to ask what sort of perspective these CNBC moderators bring to the presidential contest.
In an interview with John Harwood Wednesday on CNBC’s “Speakeasy,” Republican presidential candidate and the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina said her rival Donald Trump is “going to be hearing quite a lot from me,” at the debate tonight.
CNBC Chief Washington Correspondent and New York Times Political Writer John Harwood argued that GOP presidential candidates Dr. Ben Carson and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) are too sensitive to tough questions, while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is better at handling tough questions
Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) is presenting a new explanation of how he acquired those gruesome injuries on New Year’s Day. During an interview with CNBC, Reid says he was hurt in his own bathroom. But that explanation doesn’t hold up.
The real lesson of this exchange: John Harwood wanted to ambush Ted Cruz with an assault on his credibility, in an interview he had plenty of time to prepare, and the only thing he could come up with was the number of IRS agents Cruz mentioned in a joke. Is that really the ground defenders of the Lyin’ King and Hillary “I didn’t want to carry two cell phones” Clinton want to fight on?
The exact number of agents working for the IRS is not relevant to either the joke Cruz was making, or the serious and legitimate point underlying it: the same government that pronounces itself utterly helpless to keep track of immigration scofflaws, or secure the border, is very aggressive about keeping tabs on law-abiding taxpayers.
