Famous TV journalist and CNBC anchor John Harwood today told the networks’ viewers that the Democratic target of a FBI investigation is a Republican.
The basic error came as Harwood talked about the revelation that Virginia’s Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe is facing an investigation by the FBI.
When speaking alongside “Fast Money” co-host Melissa Lee, Harwood insisted that “this is the second consecutive Republican Governor to face a corruption investigation” and added that former Governor “McDonnell was convicted of corruption charges.”
Harwood was referring to Virginia’s former Republican Governor Bob McDonnell, who was convicted of improperly accepting contributions, gifts and loans while governor. McDonnell served as governor from 2010 to 2014.
But now it is McAuliffe’s turn to be investigated by the FBI for taking large donations from a Chinese national.
Even as Harwood improperly called Democrat McAuliffe a Republican, no one on CNBC’s show corrected the host’s glaring error.
Still, Harwood went on to properly note that McAuliffe is a close Clinton buddy.
“Terry McAuliffe is a close ally with both Bill and Hillary Clinton and so that adds an extra dimension to it. He’s served on the board of the Clinton Foundation–the Clinton Global Initiative which has been very significant in terms of criticism from Hillary Clinton, from her service as secretary of state and fund-raising issues,” Harwood told his viewers.
As Newsbusters noted, it took several hours for Harwood to get back to his viewers and admit that he made a major error in identifying McAuliffe’s party affiliation.
Harwood is the same CNBC host who drew the ire of Republicans with his biased performance during last year’s GOP debates.
At one point, the CNBC anchor lied about Marco Rubio’s tax plan, and was slammed by both Donald Trump and Chris Christie. The CNBC debate was so bad it was even declared the “loser” of the presidential debates.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com