So you've probably seen Martha McSally's staged "showdown" with CNN reporter Manu Raju. Here's the short version: McSally was appointed to John McCain's open seat. She's relatively liberal for Arizona, and her reelection numbers look bad. So she imitates Trump, then fundraises off it. CNN's New Day looks at how she responded to the exact same question when Laura Ingraham asked it.
"So Jeffrey Toobin asserted Republicans are afraid of the facts here. There is some evidence that maybe they're not just afraid of the facts. They're afraid of even being asked about the facts. Exhibit "A" here would be Arizona Senator Martha McSally. Listen," John Berman said.
McSALLY: Man, you're a liberal hack. I'm not talking to you.
RAJU: You're not going to comment?
McSALLY: You're a liberal hack, buddy.
"How practiced was that response?" Alysin Camerota said.
"It is the most basic, pertinent question facing Republican senators now. How do I know that? Because it was asked again by liberal hack Laura Ingraham. Listen to this."
McSALLY: I want a fair trial.
INGRAHAM: Okay. No, no, no. You can call me a conservative hack. But do you want witnesses, yes or no? Why aren't you telling us?
McSALLY: Because we're going to vote on Tuesday to start the trial and let them present the --
INGRAHAM: How are you going to vote on the motion for more witnesses?
McSALLY: We're going to get to that. I'm not going to tell everybody what my vote will be.
INGRAHAM: It's an easy question.
McSALLY: I think we're going to proceed forward at that point.
"It's a very easy question. She's a liberal hack," Berman said.
"Jeffrey, what do you make of the Arizona senator's response?"
"Well, I think, you know, the most revealing thing is this outrageous and ignorant thing she said about Manu Raju, who is a fine journalist and very well known in the Capitol about being a straight up reporter," Toobin said.
"She's fundraising off of this. She has put this out. And this is just indicative of where the Republican party is today that, you know, anything CNN says, anything the New York Times says is, by its definition, untrue. First of all, it's wrong. What we say and do is not untrue. It's also indicative of how ugly the Republican party has become."
"And that that has become a strategic asset. They say behaving in a way that debases their office, diminishes the integrity of a reporter and that relationship and refuses to ask a simple direct question by being a cheap attack on that. They fundraise off of it. Who'd they learn that from? Daddy. Donald Trump. This is a downstream effect of the president," John Avlon said.
