CNN's Henderson Sees GOPers 'Saying Outrageous Things,' Lauds Obama 'Political Genius'

In the past couple of days, CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson has been noticeably sour toward some GOP presidential candidates, asserting that they are "saying outrageous things," and even admitting to having a "visceral reaction" to Mike Huckabee's criticism of the Obama nuclear deal with Iran.

By contrast, the CNN reporter just yesterday effused over the "political genius" of President Barack Obama using a press conference to criticize members of the Republican presidential field.

On Tuesday morning's CNN Newsroom, as she set up a question for Henderson, host Carol Costello asserted that Republicans are trying to "out-Trump" each other and showed clips of videos released by the campaigns of Republicans Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina. Costello: The first debate is coming up, and the Republican candidates are vying for a spot. Right now, according to Politico, eight candidates are a lock. Eight. The others are trying to out-Trump each other to try to assure spot on stage. Listen.

political genius at work

“R-S-P-E-C-T.” (trying to quote franklin’s song)

“And finally, Bos, I just want to say thank you for Youkilis.” (after boston traded him to Chicago)

“Even though most people agree... I’m presenting a fair deal, the fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right.” (mixing up star trek and star wars)

“When I meet with world leaders, what’s striking — whether it’s in Europe or here in Asia...” (As he spoke to Hawaiians)

“We’re the country that built the Intercontinental Railroad.”

“We’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or providing good service. We don’t want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy.”

“One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world — Navy Corpse-Man Christian Brossard.” he pronounced the ps in “Corpsman”

“The Cambridge police acted stupidly.”

“The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings and inefficiencies to our health care system.” (At least he spoke the truth for once)

“It was also interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There’s a lot of — I don’t know what the term is in Austrian, wheeling and dealing.” (While speaking to Germans- Imagine if President Bush had said any of these things?)

“No, no. I have been practicing...I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something.”

“I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” (Tipping his hand to Joe the plumber- Imagine the outrage by the press if President Bush said he was going to redistribute everyone’s hard earned money?)

“What I was suggesting — you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith...”

“I’m here with the Girardo family here in St. Louis.” (Speaking via satellite while in Kansas)

“Let me introduce to you the next President — the next Vice President of the United States of America, Joe Biden.”

“Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee — which is my committee — a bill to call for divestment from Iran as way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon.” (A committee he is NOT on)

“Let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s. It will be a strong friend of Israel’s under a McCain...administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel’s under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change.” (uh huh)

“On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.”

“I’ve now been in 57 states — I think one left to go.”

“Why can’t I just eat my waffle?”

“It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

“The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know, you know, there’s a reaction that’s been bred in our experiences that don’t go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that’s just the nature of race in our society.”

“Come on! I just answered, like, eight questions.” (That’s fine Mr President, you can take the next 7 years off then- we don’t want to overwork you)

“In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.” (12 people died)

Yup- and there’s plenty more folks- but you’d never know it because the media keeps it quiet- but if it had been President Bush saying any one of these things, he’d have been hounded for years)

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