Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) proved her disdain and disgust for America when she smeared CNN reporter Manu Raju as a “liberal hack” for asking a polite impeachment question, fundraised off her smear then politely dodged the same question from Fox’s Laura Ingraham.
In case you missed it, here’s how The New York Times described what happened between McSally and Raju yesterday:
It was a straightforward question being put to nearly every Republican senator in the Capitol on Thursday: Should the Senate consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial?
But when Manu Raju of CNN, a longtime congressional reporter, put it to Senator Martha McSally of Arizona, a first-term Republican who is up for election this fall, she went on the attack.
“You’re a liberal hack,” she said. “I’m not talking to you. You’re a liberal hack.”
It appears that McSally, lagging in the polls, pre-planned this YouTube moment as a campaign event.
From Talking Points Memo:
McSally’s staffer was apparently recording the exchange, which the senator posted on her official Twitter page within an hour.
Then, the campaigning began.
Within an hour of the video hitting Twitter, Politico’s Kyle Cheney noted, McSally’s campaign had reserved the domain name Liberalhack.com — prime real estate.
Before long, TPM notes, McSally was selling tee shirts with her now-signature phrase and getting Twitter plaudits and campaign plugs from the likes of Sean Hannity and the Donald Trump campaign.
She also got an invite to Fox prime time show The Ingraham Angle. There, McSally and Ingraham giggled over her disregard for the press.
Worse, McSally pretended Raju had asked a “trapping question.” There was no pushback on this obvious falsehood from host Ingraham – even though she asked the same question later:
INGRAHAM: Senator, do you regret what you said?
MCSALLY: No, Laura, I do not. I said it again actually as I went in. I said you are a liberal hack, buddy. As you know, I mean these CNN reporters – but many of them around the Capitol, they are so biased. They are so in cahoots with the Democrats, they so can't stand the president, and they run around trying to chase Republicans and ask trapping questions.
Then, in her next breath, McSally held herself up as a straight shooter to a credulous Ingraham:
MCSALLY: I'm a fighter pilot. You know, I called it like it is. That is what we see out of the mainstream media and especially CNN every single day, so obviously, I'm going to tell the truth, and I did it today …
[…]
MCSALLY: I speak the truth, and I'm going to continue to do it. I've done it my whole life.
McSally also responded to calls for her to apologize by claiming she was the victim:
MCSALLY: Well, they have a lot of apologizing to do, and they should probably be filing FEC reports with the DNC, right? In kind contribution.
But then Ingraham asked McSally the very same question. Instead of objecting, McSally dodged, thus casting doubt on the genuineness of her outrage at Raju and suggesting she ginned it up to avoid answering what Ingraham called an “easy question.”
INGRAHAM: What about Manu Raju's question? Do you want witnesses?
MCSALLY: I want a fair trial.
[…]
INGRAHAM: You can call me a conservative hack, but do you want witnesses, yes or no? Why aren’t you telling us?
MCSALLY: Because we’re going to vote on Tuesday to start the trial, and let them present the --
INGRAHAM: Well, how are you going to vote on the motion for more, for witnesses?
MCSALLY: We are going to get to that. I mean, I'm not going to tell everybody what my votes are going to be - but obviously my point--
INGRAHAM: Kind of an easy question, don't you think, Senator?
MCSALLY: I think we're going to proceed forward at that point and I really -
INGRAHAM: But you're not going to vote with Romney and the others?
MCSALLY: I think we'll proceed to a final vote, I hope with strong unity after phase one is complete.
McSally’s duplicity is on full display below, from the January 16, 2020 The Ingraham Angle.
Let’s also remember that McSally is not an elected Senator. She actually LOST her only race for the Senate and was forced to concede several days after the midterm election day in 2018, once her advisors pointed out that she had no chance. And then she was appointed to fill John McCain’s vacant seat, essentially as a slap to the face of Arizonans who had voted against her for the Senate. So she’s not even a first term Senator. She’s a lame duck appointee, who’s desperate to keep the seat. Hopefully, Mark Kelly will be able to win this seat in November, and then McSally can return to civilian life.