Mediaite » John Harwood

Republican Debate Crowd Lustily Boos Herman Cain Sexual Harassment Questions

Tommy Christopher — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 01:53:37 +0000

After twenty or so minutes of calm debate on the economy, Wednesday night’s CNBC Republican Presidential Debate turned ugly, as moderators Maria Bartiromo and John Harwood asked embattled frontrunner Herman Cain about the sexual harassment allegations being leveled at him, then followed by asking Mitt Romney if he would have retained Cain as a CEO in one of his businesses. The debate crowd booed both questions loudly. Both candidates handled the rather clumsily-constructed questions well, and the crowd gave a raucous cheer when Harwood said, “Now, back to the economy…”

Bartiromo summarized Cain’s troubles, saying, “In recent days, we have learned four different women accused you of inappropriate behavior,” then framed the election as a business decision.

“You know the shareholders are reluctant to hire a CEO where there are character issues,” she said, then asked, “Why should the American people hire a president if they feel there are character issues?”

Loud, low-pitched boos grew among the crowd, as Cain replied, “The American people deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion based on unfounded accusations. that’s what — I value my character and my integrity more than anything else and for every one person that comes forward with a false accusation, there are probably — are thousands who would say none of that sort of activity ever came from Herman Cain.”

Cain cited his uptick in fundraising since the scandal broke, saying, ”Over the last nine days, the voters have voted with their dollars and they are saying they don’t care about the character assassination. They care about leadership and get thing economy growing and all of the other problems we face.”

Cain’s response got huge applause from the crowd. Then, John Harwood followed up with a weird hypothetical to Mitt Romney, to even louder boos from the crowd. “Governor Romney,” he said, “when you were with Bain Capital, you purchased a lot of companies. You could fire the ceo and management team or you could keep them. Would you keep a CEO — are you persuaded by what Mr. Cain said? Would you keep him on if you bought his company?”

Romney handled the question deftly, responding, “Look, Herman Cain is the person to respond to these questions. He just did. The people in this room and across the country can make their own assessment.”

Cain has left himself open to legitimate criticism over his handling of the allegations, but neither of the questions asked tonight were particularly fair, to him or to Romney. It’s fair to criticize Cain, but it’s not fair to ask him to presume his iwn guilt, or to ask Romney to. This is probably the one time I agree with a Republican debate audience this year.

Here’s the clip, from CNBC:

CNBC’s John Harwood On Debt Deal: ‘It’ll Be Forgotten By Voters Pretty Quickly’

Mark Joyella — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:06:03 +0000

On CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning, John Harwood seemed both far too tired to engage in jokes comparing members of the Tea Party to “terrorists” and quite convinced that voters, before too long, will forget the debt deal that will likely go to President Obama today. “It will be forgotten by voters pretty quickly,” said Harwood. “Everybody took a hit. It was not good for President Obama. It wasn’t good for John Boehner. But at the end of the day, they got something done. Remember, John Boehner knew as soon as he became Speaker after the election that this issue in particular was going to be like waterboarding for him. Because he–you had the impulses of his newly elected members and many conservatives in his caucus, everybody in Congress hates the debt ceiling. Everyone. But he knew that it had to pass eventually.”

Earlier, when Joe Kernen attempted to joke about comments reportedly made in a Democratic meeting comparing members of the Tea Party to “terrorists,” Harwood seemed confused, asking Kernen, “are you still high from last night?”

Watch it here, from CNBC:

CNBC’s John Harwood To Liberals: “Lay Off Hallucinogenic Drugs”

Colby Hall — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:14:52 +0000

CNBC’s John Harwood directed surprisingly strong language today towards progressives who are upset by what they perceive to be compromises in health care reform. Harwood said “if you’re a liberal and you want universal coverage in this country, and think that you can do better, that Harry Reid can do better…they ought to lay off the hallucinogenic drugs because we’ve had a vivid demonstration of the limits of political possibilities on this issue.”

While reporting from the White House Lawn, Harwood said to host Contessa Brewer:

“So much of the commentary that I’ve heard has been really idiotic. Liberals who want universal health care ought to be thanking Harry Reid for getting this done rather than talking about what’s inadequate in the bill. I’m not saying the bill is a good bill. But if you’re a liberal and you want universal coverage in this country, and think that you can do better, that Harry Reid can do better than he’s done, or that the White House can do better, they ought to lay off the hallucinogenic drugs because we’ve had a vivid demonstration of the limits of political possibilities on this issue.”

Breaking: Media Getting More Partisan

Robert Quigley — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:12:05 +0000

For all of the hoopla about Fox News’s partisan bias, what about the rest of cableland? Writing in The New York Times, CNBC correspondent John Harwood makes the point that essentially all cable news networks that aren’t Fox have viewerships that tilt substantially to the left, which is very different from how it was eight and even four years ago. It’s not just MSNBC: even the likes of HLN, CNBC, and Comedy Central have big Democratic leans.

From his article, titled “If Fox Is Partisan, It Is Not Alone:”

By 2008-9, the network audiences tilted decisively, like Fox’s. CNN viewers were more Democratic by 50.4 percent to 28.7 percent; MSNBC viewers were 53.6 percent to 27.3 percent Democratic; Headline News’ 47.3 percent to 31.4 percent Democratic; CNBC’s 46.9 percent to 32.5 percent Democratic; and Comedy Central’s 47.1 to 28.8 percent Democratic.

Harwood also points out that as recently as 2001, MSNBC had a slight Republican lean: 41.4 percent to 39.4 percent. All of these numbers come, incidentally, from Scarborough Research; no relation to the Morning Joe host.

How strongly do these tilts reflect left-leaning editorial content? Unclear. MSNBC, often singled out for taking a Fox News-like approach with its primetime block, has the biggest margin of any network mentioned, but CNN’s isn’t much smaller; perhaps the most disappointed constituency of all will be Comedy Central fans, who love to trot out the line that Republicans and Democrats alike love The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

The trend doesn’t seem to show any signs of reversing; as more conservative voices like John Stossel and (possibly) Lou Dobbs drift over to Fox networks, odds are it will continue to get worse.

(image via ACCJ)

Chuck Todd’s Goatee Lives On

Robert Quigley — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:06:44 +0000

It’s official: Chuck Todd’s goatee will remain intact. Todd had a running bet with ABC’s Jake Tapper that if the Phillies made it to the World Series, he would either shave off his goatee or donate $1000 to the charity of Tapper’s choice. After a tense standoff with a razor-wielding Press Secretary Gibbs on The Today Show, Todd went with charity, much to the disappointment of the Twitter community.

Standing with Gibbs on the White House lawn, Todd expressed hesitation, planting the flag that he might just go with charity after all. Gibbs seemed gleeful about the whole affair: “Chuck applied last night for a presidential pardon…it has been denied,” he said. Eventually, he opted to write two checks for $1000, one to Dr. Shershah Syed, an OB-GYN in Pakistan who treats women with few other options, and one to Samaritan Inns, a set of transitional homes dedicated to helping the homeless and recovering addicts.

Twitter was impressed by his generosity, but on the whole seemed a little disappointed that they wouldn’t get to see a Caillou-scrubbed Todd.

The DC crowd won’t be too sad, though. Politico interviewed reporters including John Harwood, Mike Emanuel, and Mark Knoller about the gamble, and they seemed to have a hard time imagining Todd without a goatee. Said Knoller: “There are a lot of people who are upset at the lighthearted manner with which Jake and Chuck are dealing with their beards… you won’t see me and Wolf Blitzer making bets on our beards.”

Does The White House View Gay Activists As “Internet Left Fringe?” (Update)

Robert Quigley — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:04:31 +0000

President Obama’s speech to the gay community on Saturday night didn’t promise anyone the moon, but it was nevertheless well-received, and Obama’s reaffirmed commitment to end “don’t ask, don’t tell” was a historic occasion. Less than 24 hours later, the blogosphere is aflame over a set of remarks attributed to an unnamed White House adviser to the effect that the White House views the National Equality March as “part of the Internet left fringe” and not to be taken too seriously.

Update: The White House press office has just sent us the following statement via another blog: “That sentiment does not reflect White House thinking at all, we’ve held easily a dozen calls with the progressive online community because we believe the online communities can often keep the focus on how policy will affect the American people rather than just the political back-and-forth.”

Yesterday, CNBC’s John Harwood had this to report on the Nightly News:

Barack Obama is doing well with 90% or more of Democrats, so the White House views this opposition as really part of the Internet left fringe, Lester.

For a sign of how seriously the White House does or doesn’t take this opposition, one adviser told me those bloggers need to take off the pajamas, get dressed, and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult.

The first half of this quote could have merely been an impoliticly worded summary on Harwood’s part. It seems to be equating the “opposition” — which in this context, sounds an awful lot like gay activists or the gay community — with the “Internet left fringe.” But the second half, attributed as it is to an unnamed “adviser,” sounds like fightin’ words. Bloggers tend to react like piranhas whenever the old “pajamas” line is trotted out, and when the source purports to be somebody in the White House and the subject is a hot-button political issue over which there have been mass demonstrations all weekend, the reaction is that much swifter and stronger. Here are responses from a few from blogs across the spectrum:

From Americablog’s John Aravosis, who was one of the first to jump on Harwood’s remarks:

So the gay community, and its concerns about President Obama’s inaction, and backtracking, on DADT and DOMA, are now, according to President Obama’s White House, part of a larger “fringe” that acts like small children who play in their pajamas and need to grow up. (And a note to our readers: The White House just included all of you in that loony “left fringe.”)

I wonder how the Human Rights Campaign is going to explain how the White House just knifed our community less than 24 hours after he went to their dinner and claimed he was our friend.

From Another Black Conservative:

Back in July I asked the question if gays were becoming the new blacks of the Democratic Party. Today, it appears we get an answer to that question… So the White House views gay protesters as a “pajama clad Internet left fringe”. Funny, that sounds exactly like the attitude Obama had for the Tea Party protesters.

From Slog‘s Dominic Holden:

[Obama] truly doesn’t give a shit about LGBT people. His administration chose Rick Warren to give his inaugural invocation, his lawyers filed a homophobic legal brief defending DOMA, and now his advisers are marginalizing scores of Americans … as pajama-clad fringe bloggers. And when did it become such a sin to be blogger in pajamas?

Mediaite has contacted the White House and is awaiting a response.

Here’s the video of Harwood’s remarks:

(h/t Slog)

Video Of Obama’s “Jackass” Comment Removed By Politico, Saved By CNN

Glynnis MacNicol — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:21:16 +0000

Politico has nabbed (not so fast! updates below) the video of President Obama‘s now infamous (image saving?) “jackass” remark. It’s a fairly jolly scene! The journalist we heard hooting in the background yesterday, turns out to be John Harwood himself, who thinks the remark in hi-larious. However, any pretense that Obama’s remark was reasonably going to be kept on the down-low is done away with when it becomes clear the President is surrounded by cameras and already miked. His look of exasperation at the room’s response is nothing if not well-practiced.

UPDATE: And now Politico appears to have removed it. Because they feel it’s off-the-record? Can it really still be considered OTR now that it’s become such a public event? Yowzer. Even Mark Knoller doesn’t seem to think the interaction can reasonably be considered off-the-record anymore. Did Politico merely chicken out? Were they on the receiving end of a phone call from the higher-higher ups? It’s hard to imagine them removing such traffic bait for any other reason. We have an email into Politico and will update when we hear back.

UPDATE 2: Politico tells us “We just felt upon reflection that it was more respectful to a fellow news-gathering operation to take it down.”

UPDATE 3: YouTube saves the day! Apparently CNN has no OTR issues with airing the video Politico scooped. You can watch it above. Original Politico link below.