Cynical and Disreputable: Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ) Accuses CNN Reporter of Being a "Liberal Hack" on Air to Boost Her Fundraising Scam
January 17, 2020
Mark Kelly, husband of Gabby Giffords, is running as a Democrat against Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ) who is the cynical Susan Collins of the Southwest. He’s out fundraising her, and she’s gone “Full Trump” as a result. (Gage Skidmore)
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH
Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ) was appointed to replace John McCain after his passing. In her short tenure, she has managed to amass a record of cynicism and misleading statements that makes her the Susan Collins (R-ME) of the Southwest. BuzzFlash has posted many commentaries about her hypocrisy and cunning.
In 2020, she will be up for election, and as an appointed Senator she is leaving no GOP dirty trick unturned to win the seat outright. Unfortunately for McSally, her likely Democratic opponent is Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and husband of Gabby Giffords. McSally has recently been showing signs of desperation as Kelly is far outpacing her in fundraising. Kelly outrasied McSally by $2 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 alone. Phoenix radio station KTAR news ran a January 16 online story, “Mark Kelly heads into election year with big cash lead over Sen. McSally.”
To try to haul in more campaign cash, McSally has adopted the Trump meme of making the press into “the enemy of the people” and purveyor of “fake news.”
This week, in a despicable, move, McSally appears to have set up a Stephanie Grisham and Kellyanne Conway-style scathing attack on a CNN reporter, Manu Raju in order to raise funds from the Trump cult.
In his daily new update email, Brian Stelter of CNN summarized what happened to the increasingly frantic and duplicitous McSally as she launched a vitriolic attack on a respected CNN journalist:
GOP senator attacks Manu Raju as "liberal hack" for asking a legitimate question
Republican Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona would have been wise to have read the flashcard and followed its advice. But instead, she resorted to lobbing cheap, false, and personal attacks against CNN's Manu Raju, who is widely considered to be one of the best reporters on Capitol Hill.
When Raju asked if the Senate should consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial, McSally called him a "liberal hack," adding, "I'm not talking to you." This has all the trademarks of a fund-raising initiative by a lawmaker in a competitive race. McSally went on Laura Ingraham's show Thursday night for a victory lap of sorts... But even Ingraham tried to get her to answer the same Q Raju asked...
Indeed, McSally’s fundraising email, which emphasized her calculated attack on Manju (which exemplifies Trump demonizing the media), went out almost immediately after the “confrontation” McSally had a video crew to film her stalking out of the interview, all the better to rouse the MAGA cult via social media.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer called on McSally to apologize, calling her behavior “disgusting” and “awful.” Like her cabal leader, however, she has not apologized. She is too busy trying to make herself into a MAGA heroine.
Greg Sargent of The Washington Post observed:
In a perverse way, it’s fitting that this episode is going viral at exactly the moment when President Trump’s impeachment trial is getting underway — that is, when Trump’s defenders in the Senate are set to put on a great show of pretending to give serious consideration to the case against Trump, before voting to acquit him.
McSally’s vile little performance puts the lie to that notion as effectively as anything possibly could.
This is Trump’s legacy of demagoguery and scathing attacks on the press. That such vitriol, loathing and hate has become a strategic form of vile GOP fundraising profoundly undermines democracy, while enhancing Trump’s authoritarian powers, and his elected GOP shills, to manipulate his followers with emotional invective.
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