The producers of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 apparently did not want their viewers to know that a panel full of women who they portrayed as everyday, ordinary Republican voters were actually a bunch of GOP operatives.
Here's more on that panel from The Hill, where one of the women defended the indefensible on the Kavanaugh allegations: GOP woman on Kavanaugh allegations: 'What boy hasn’t done this in high school?':
A panel of five Republican women in Florida joined CNN this week to defend Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh amid sexual assault allegations leveled against him.
Christine Blasey Ford went public last Sunday with an allegation that Kavanaugh pinned her down and tried to remove her clothes at a high school party in the 1980s and covered her mouth to muffle her screams.
The women interviewed by CNN offered multiple defenses for President Trump's pick for the Supreme Court, who has flatly denied Ford's allegations.
“How can we believe the word of a woman of something that happened 36 years ago. This guy has an impeccable reputation. There is nobody that has spoken ill will about him,” said Lourdes Castillo de la Peña, one of the defenders.
“But in the grand scheme of things, my goodness, there was no intercourse. There was maybe a touch. Really? Thirty-six years later she’s still stuck on that, had it happened?” Irina Villarino added.
“I mean, we’re talking about a 15-year-old girl, which I respect. I’m a woman. I respect. But we’re talking about a 17-year-old boy in high school with testosterone running high. Tell me, what boy hasn’t done this in high school?” Gina Sosa asked.
The women also said that even if the allegation is true, they’d support Kavanaugh joining the Supreme Court.
“As long as that’s an isolated incident, yes … If the person made a mistake and they’ve moved on and they have been a good human being, who are we to judge?” Castillo de la Peña said.
The defenses the women offered reflect the support Kavanaugh has among Republicans.
During the lead up to the segment and during the panel discussion afterwards, none of the women were identified as anything other than "Republican voters."
As Shawn Brandt asked on Twitter, is CNN trying to paint Republican voters as being even more extreme than they actually are, or did they just not do their homework?
