CNN White House correspondent John Harwood may be wishing Twitter had an “undo” option. On Thursday, Harwood was blasted on social media for basically repeating outrageous comments made last weekend by an MSNBC guest.
This week, Americans have watched the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. As might be expected, Republican Senators have grilled Jackson over her record of giving light sentences to defendants in child pornography cases.
Harwood decided to offer up his opinion that this basic due diligence of someone who could sit on the nation’s highest court for a lifetime appointment was endangering her life.
on ambitious GOP senators "playing to the base" w/KBJ:
-conservative Nat'l Review calls their attacks "meritless"
-they know a disturbed man fantasizing about Dems and child sex trafficking fired an assault rifle in DC pizzeria in 2016
political fun-and-games can get dangerous
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) March 24, 2022
RELATED: Ted Cruz Will Not Vote For Biden Supreme Court Nominee After She Can’t Say What A Woman Is
Over The Top Comments
Last weekend, far-left journalist for The Nation, Elie Mystal, said on MSNBC that Republicans were trying to get Jackson “killed.”
Mystal told Tiffany Cross, without evidence, “What Josh Hawley is doing, let’s let’s be very clear, what Josh Hawley is doing when he tries to do this, is he’s trying to get her killed. He is trying to get violence done against a Supreme Court nominee.”
People wasted no time calling out Harwood’s comments.
So we're at "Republicans are trying to get Ketanji Brown Jackson murdered" stage of the simp fest. https://t.co/Ll3QPWYH6D
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) March 24, 2022
Many users pointed out that Steve Scalise was nearly killed after a Bernie Sanders supporter opened fire at a Republican baseball event and had a list of targets in his pocket:
Steve Scalise says hi. https://t.co/kcY7uMSDOu
— Small Fringe Shoshi ?????? (@shoshido) March 24, 2022
"political fun-and-games can get dangerous." Yep. https://t.co/tys4sAnQNy pic.twitter.com/MLErtkIUzz
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) March 24, 2022
Hilarious that John here is the last call in the Democrats game of narrative telephone.
This pizzagate/ QAnon talking point generated from the White House, was laundered through the outside groups (Fallon and Mystal for Demand Justice, Milhiser) then picked up by Harwood. https://t.co/M2Q9Nwj5Ew
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) March 24, 2022
Not The First Time GOP Has Been Implicated
This is not the first time that Democrats have implied that Republicans are not just out to harm those they disagree with, but to do serious bodily injury or even kill them.
In January of 2021, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) had the audacity to agree with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) after the controversy over the stock app Robinhood suspending the trading of Game Stop stock.
Fully agree. ? https://t.co/rW38zfLYGh
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 28, 2021
This was apparently a trigger for Ocasio-Cortez, reminding her of the violence that had taken place at the Capitol just weeks before.
She told Cruz that he and other Republicans had “tried to get her killed,” and that he could well, just save his agreement.
I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out.
Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed.
In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign. https://t.co/4mVREbaqqm
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021
Short Memories
It is hard to tell whether or not Democrats and the left have short memories or convenient ones.
In addition to Scalise, in October of 2018, a man from New York, Ronald DiRisi, was arrested and charged with threatening to kill two Senators over their backing of then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
No word on whether John Harwood is still looking for that Twitter undo option.