While Republicans complain that their debates are being moderated by left-leaning reporters, Democrats are about to face off in what should be a much easier debate, one moderated by a TV anchor who once called on President Obama to destroy the GOP opposition.
CBS “Face the Nation” anchor John Dickerson wrote right after President Obama’s re-inauguration that, in order to be “transformational,” he would have to “go for the throat” and “pulverize” the Republican opposition.
Dickerson, then a political correspondent for the liberal online magazine Slate and political director for CBS News, wrote a controversial column in 2013 that drew national media attention for appearing to advise Obama on how to aggressively undermine his political opponents.
“The president who came into office speaking in lofty terms about bipartisanship and cooperation can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP,” Dickerson wrote at Slate. “If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat.”
Later in the column, Dickerson wrote, “Obama’s only remaining option is to pulverize. Whether he succeeds in passing legislation or not, given his ambitions, his goal should be to delegitimize his opponents. Through a series of clarifying fights over controversial issues, he can force Republicans to either side with their coalition’s most extreme elements or cause a rift in the party that will leave it, at least temporarily, in disarray.”
At the time, several conservative personalities pounced on the column, including radio host Rush Limbaugh. “This is your media,” he told his audience. “This is who they are. This is what they want to happen. This is what they are advocating, and this is what they will support.”
Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren questioned what “the media would say” if a Fox News employee had written a similar column, but with the roles for Obama and Republicans reversed.
Dickerson attempted to defend himself in a follow-up column responding to the controversy. He wrote that he was engaging in political “analysis” rather than offering “personal advice” to Obama.
“I was using a very specific definition of transformational presidencies based on my reading of a theory of political science and the president’s own words about transformational presidencies from the 2008 campaign,” he said.
A spokesperson for CBS News did not return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner media desk.
After a GOP debate last week that was widely criticized for a lack of “substantive” questions, several of the Republican candidates have said the debate process should be altered with more “mainstream media” moderators being entirely replaced with conservative journalists or commentators.
“How about instead of a bunch of attack journalists, we actually have real conservatives,” said Ted Cruz at an event in Iowa. “Could you imagine a debate moderated by [conservative commentators] Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin?”
During a press conference on Tuesday, Donald Trump said the Democratic debate hosted by CNN in October was tilted in front-runner Hillary Clinton’s favor.
“Hillary had only softballs all night long,” Trump said, referring to moderator Anderson Cooper’s questions for Clinton. “It was like this, ‘Here, Hillary, hit this one over the park.'”
