A panelist on CNN called out cackling MSNBC hosts Thursday on “CNN This Morning.”
MSNBC hosts Jen Psaki and Rachel Maddow mocked voters Tuesday night over the results of a Virginia exit poll declaring immigration as the top issue driving turnout at the polls. Republican strategist Doug Heye told fellow CNN panelists that the clip could cost President Joe Biden the 2024 presidential election.
“When I’m outside of Washington, the two issues I hear about the most are Biden’s age — Biden can’t do anything about that — and the border. Biden can do something about that. It is overwhelmingly a vulnerability for this administration, and I think in Washington, they don’t get it,” Heye said.
“Outside of Washington, Democrats get it more and more. I was watching MSNBC for a little bit on Super Tuesday and there was a panel of hosts and they were all sort of laughing. ‘Well, Virginia’s a border state with West Virginia, so of course they’d be worried about the border. Hahaha.’ Eric Adams gets it. Kathy Hochul’s starting to get it, and if Washington — if the liberal intelligentsia that informs this White House can laugh this off or think they can, they’re in for four more years of Donald Trump,” Heye concluded.
Psaki, who was previously Biden’s press secretary, was baffled by the results of the Virginia exit poll, stating that Trump “indoctrinated people” to fear the threat of “people who do not look like them.” Maddow interjected as well, causing an eruption of laughter among the panel when she joked that “Virginia does have a border with West Virginia.”
Immigration was selected by 37% of Republican primary voters in Virginia as their top issue, according to NBC 4 Washington. The economy was the second most important issue to voters at 33%, followed by abortion and foreign policy both at 11%. (RELATED: CNN Panel Gives Trump Credit On Border Crisis)
Trump has leaned in on the border crisis throughout his presidential campaign, promising mass deportations of illegal migrants if elected to office. There were more than 2.4 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2023 alone under the Biden administration, up from 2.3 million in fiscal year 2022 and 1.7 million in fiscal year 2021, according to federal data.