The Mirror

Beto Underwhelms At Debate, He’s Blaming Headline Writers At WaPo And Texas Tribune

(Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

Betsy Rothstein Gossip blogger
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Intense, cringe-worthy self-reflection once appeared to be the hallmark of Beto O’Rourke, but the White House hopeful appears to be throwing it out the window. It makes a viewer wistful for the days of O’Rourke leaving his young family to wander around the country talking about his “funk.”

On Wednesday morning, CNN anchor John Berman pressed the candidate on the terrible reviews he received for the previous night’s debate in Detroit.

“It wasn’t just the Texas Tribune, the Washington Post called [your performance] lackluster… If there is this perception out there, what do you need to do to change it?” Berman asked.

O’Rourke replied, “I don’t know. Maybe talk to the headline writers at the Texas Tribune and the Washington Post.” (RELATED: Beto To Campaign Staff: ‘I Was A Giant Asshole To Be Around Sometimes’)

O’Rourke argued that before the debate, the Texas Tribune released a poll that had him beating President Trump.

Berman wasn’t swayed by O’Rourke’s deflection. “Subdued, second-rate performance,” the anchor told him repeatedly during the interview.

O’Rourke may also want to have a chat with CNN’s Chris Cillizza. (RELATED: We Are All Beto Shrinks)

On the evening of the debate, Cillizza, something of a media punching bag in New York and Washington journo circles, tried to muster up the notion that O’Rourke, whose campaign has been waning as of late, better take the moment to rise from the ashes.

“Beto Late Than Never?” Cillizza quipped in a folksy column.

“O’Rourke has looked genuinely lost in the race over the last few months,” Cillizza wrote ahead of Tuesday night’s debate.

In the run-up to Tuesday’s debate, the O’Rourke campaign acknowledged that he wasn’t at his best in the first set and promised he will be better this time around.

“I think something needs to come through that’s a lot more me in the way that I give those answers,” O’Rourke recently told Jemele Hill.

Blaming the “fake news” media isn’t a totally bad idea.

Just look at what it has done for a certain wild-haired blond guy in the White House.