CNN’s Phil Mattingly Asks Brutal First Question About Trump’s Lead To Pence: ‘Isn’t This War Over — And Your Side Lost?’

CNN anchor Phil Mattingly opened his interview with ex-VP Mike Pence in brutal fashion, citing ex-President Donald Trump’s poll numbers and asking “Isn’t this war over, and your side lost?”

Pence took aim at Trump in a new stump speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College Wednesday entitled “Populism vs. Conservatism: Republicans’ Time for Choosing,” in which he described the Trump agenda as “stitched together by little else than personal grievances and performative outrage.”

On Thursday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Mattingly prefaced his interview with Pence by playing some of that speech, and after asking Pence to explain why he gave that speech, Mattingly hit him with a verbal brick.

Citing new CNN poll numbers, Mattingly asked if the war was already lost to Trump:

PHIL MATTINGLY: I think my question is, you know, the inflection point. You talk about this moment for the party. You know, you look at our most recent polling in terms of the issues itself. You know, your consistency on conservatism, I think, is unquestioned, whether you agree or disagree with where you are ideologically.

But in terms of who would be the best candidate to handle the economy, Trump is at 69%. Immigration 65%. Ukraine, 63%. Government overreach, 59%.

Isn’t this war over and your side lost?

EX-VP MIKE PENCE: Well. I know there’s as many in the media feel that they would like to declare this over, but Labor Day is really when campaigns begin primary campaigns. And, you know, we were in Salem, New Hampshire. A big crowd turned out. A number of us candidates were there.

I’ve been stopping in to, into places across Iowa and New Hampshire, where I think Republican primary voters, caucus-goers in Iowa, are just now really beginning to focus their attention to what’s driving all of this is of course, what you saw this morning here in CNN’s latest poll. Joe Biden has weakened this country at home and abroad. The American people are done with the failed policies of President Joe Biden. And now I think Republican primary voters and frankly, many independents and many Democrats around the country are looking for that leader and looking for that agenda that will really restore our economy and ensure our national security in generations to come.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.