CNN host Sara Sidner told President Joe Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu on Monday that the majority of the “talking points” he recited against former President Donald Trump are “definitely true.”
CNN has frequently fact-checked Trump after speeches and the network’s primary fact-checker targets the former president much more than Biden. Landrieu on “CNN News Central” spent several minutes targeting Trump and touting Biden, with Sidner largely agreeing when the campaign co-chair told the host it was all factual. (RELATED: Pro-Biden Strategist Threatens To End Interview, Dismisses Dismal Polling Numbers As ‘Just Wrong’)
WATCH:
Sidner started off by asking Landrieu about Biden’s new ad attacking Trump for being a convicted felon, characterizing it as a departure from his previous campaign strategy.
“Well, first of all it’s not a change,” Landrieu said. “When the case was in litigation, the president didn’t have any comment about it. Clearly, this was a case brought by an independent district attorney and there’s no, there are no facts or evidence to support Donald Trump‘s attempt to take the focus off of himself. But what this ad is about is about showing the American people about the issue that’s going to decide this campaign. Wisdom, courage, character. You have a choice between two people. You have somebody like Joe Biden who wakes up every day. He’s fighting hard for American citizens. He’s working hard to lower prices. He’s building 56,000 projects across the country.”
Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump in the trial that led to his felony conviction. Bragg’s lead prosecutor in the case, Matthew Colangelo, was Biden’s acting associate attorney general and spent two years in his Department of Justice (DOJ) before joining the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as senior counsel in December 2022.
CNN host Kate Bolduan in May queried Biden’s 2024 campaign communications director Michael Taylor about whether a press conference outside of Trump’s trial backfired after Trump supporters swarmed and shouted down Hollywood actor Robert De Niro amid his departure. Bolduan asked Tyler whether the campaign event gave credence to Trump’s argument that the trial is politically motivated.
Sidner then asked Landrieu about a previous Monday segment where CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten noted Trump is “careening towards a historic performance” with black voters in the 2024 election as Biden loses them.
“Are you worried about it?” Sidner asked.
“There’s no universe in which Donald Trump is going to get 21% of the black vote,” Landrieu answered. “That’s never going to happen. And so it’s not that we’re not worried about that, but we‘re fighting very, very hard for every vote.”
Enten also said that with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s inclusion on the ballot, Biden and Trump both perform worse with black voters, but that he damages the current president more.
“President Biden has in fact created 15 million jobs since he has been in office. Donald Trump lost 2.5 million jobs, the greatest loss of jobs in the history of the country for any president except Herbert Hoover,” Landrieu added.
When Democratic California Rep. Nancy Pelosi in April made a similar assertion, MSNBC host Katy Tur countered it by saying how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the economy under Trump, with Pelosi appearing to lose her temper as a result. Before the pandemic in 2020, the former president’s economy experienced a surge in median household incomes as well as an all-time low poverty rate and unemployment rates at a 50-year low, according to a Trump White House press release.
Landrieu did acknowledge Biden’s economy is experiencing issues, but he said the country is doing “well” economically.
“Look, the economy is doing well by all measures,” Sidner said. “Yes, the prices are high. There was also the infrastructure bill that was pushed through that some Republicans in their states have been touting, not giving the credit to Joe Biden, but telling their citizens that this is a great thing. Look at the roads, look at the bridges, we’re doing things. But the messaging doesn’t seem to be hitting voters. Why do you think that is and how do you think that needs to change?”
Landrieu disputed the premise of the question and touted Biden’s record related to these issues and said it will “resonate” with voters. He also asserted “Trump was asking people to drink Clorox,” a claim Biden made in 2020, which PolitiFact rated as “mostly false.”
“Donald Trump, as you know, you know this, I don‘t have to sell this to you,” Landrieu told Sidner. “The guy gets up, he thinks about himself. He looks in the mirror and he decides who he needs to go punch in the face because he’s mad about something.”
“I think Donald Trump is a joke,” he added. “When his lips are moving, he’s lying.”
The campaign co-chair suggested the comparison of Biden’s and Trump’s cognitive health and fitness has no merit.
“I think you got all the talking points in there today,” Sidner said.
“Just the truth, Sara, it’s all the truth. Fact-check me, Harry,” Landrieu responded, referring to Enten.
“Harry will fact-check you, but I know most of what you said, definitely true,” the host said.
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