Reporter on This Week Fawns Over Beto O’Rourke: ‘You’re a Rock Star’
On This Week, host George Stephanopoulos played a clip from an ABC report by Paula Faris, with interviews from her time spent with both Texas Democrat “Beto” O’Rourke and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Although she was with both candidates and their campaigns, the report was heavy-handed in being designed around O’Rourke as an exciting insurgent upstart with “rock star” status who has captured the country’s imagination.
The race in Texas has received a great deal of national attention already from liberals, the entertainment industry, and the press, mainly due to their collective desire to unseat Cruz. Faris’ report, which will air in full on Monday’s Nightline, mostly echoed that liberal point of view.
Host George Stephanopoulos introduced the clip, saying that Faris spent time with both candidates in what he called a “surprisingly competitive” race. (Later in the show, FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver says Cruz has an approximate 80% likelihood of winning.)
“You can’t go ten feet without an interruption from a Beto-backer,” Faris’s narration began, in support of the premise. In the clip she is beaming as she walks with O’Rourke at an event, and fawns “you’re a rock star!” When he coyly demurs, she insists “no you really are! You can’t go anywhere without getting noticed!”
Faris continued narrating, saying that O’Rourke has “certainly captured the nation’s attention” in addition to that of his apparent groupies, but adds he also has “unwanted” scrutiny because President Trump has called him names. Typically one would consider it a boon to an insurgent anti-Trump, anti-GOP campaign to be mentioned negatively by Trump, but Faris frames it as “unwanted” for some reason.
O’Rourke is shown responding that he doesn’t want to be a part of bitter partisanship and name-calling, then the scene switches to 2016 clips of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz calling name-calling. It switches again to a scene from a recent debate, with O’Rourke citing Trump in calling Cruz “Lying Ted”. Faris cuts back to O’Rourke in their sit-down interview, and he says it wasn’t the best phrase for him to use. Faris doesn’t ask anything else or press on the matter in the clip.
The interview then moves to Cruz, with Faris asking him if Trump is his friend or foe. On that question she pressed. And pressed.
When Faris challenged Cruz on immigration, and whether he would oppose the President on anything related to immigration, she summarized by saying “Cruz might be slightly to the left of the President, but O’Rourke has a completely different solution.” Emphasis hers. Also choice of the word “solution” was hers.
Faris then addressed voter turnout. She noted that Texas historically has low turnout, but that it’s not hard to find “die-hard supporters” on each side. She interviewed a Cruz supporter, whom she referred to as “fanatical”, about it.
“For my fiftieth wedding anniversary my husband asked me what I wanted and I said–” the supporter began.
Faris joked “I’m scared to know what you said.”
“I want Ted Cruz for President,” said the fan.
For the O’Rourke fan, she stood with a man who was wearing a ‘Beto for Senate’ shirt under his jacket and who revealed it as he approached, Superman-style.
“Perhaps the enthusiasm this time around might actually translate into voting,” she concluded. Although she was talking about voter enthusiasm, and showed a crowd’s adulation for O’Rourke, the clip included no mention of the fact that over 77,000 people have signed up to attend a rally for Cruz on Monday, necessitating a change in venue to accomodate the humongous crowd. It will now be held at the Toyota Center, where the Houston Rockets play.
While Faris often seemed to be right-of-center when co-hosting The View, overall, this was an embarrassingly lop-sided report that was out of place in the Sunday morning talk line-up.
[Featured image via screengrab]
—
Follow Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) on Twitter
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
