Rep. Dan Goldman didn't hold back with his criticism of CNN's useless presidential debate so-called "moderators," who sat there like a couple of stumps that lost their ability to speak when they should have been fact checking serial liar Trump during an interview this Friday on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360.
Cooper started things out by asking Goldman about the freakout on the left that Biden should be replaced due to his poor performance during the debate, with no one disputing that Biden had issues, and Goldman was pitch perfect with what the reaction should be:
REP. DAN GOLDMAN (D-NY): Look, I think everyone needs to calm down a little bit. It was a bad night. There was a poor performance, but one night does not make a campaign and it does not erase three and a half years of stellar leadership that has brought our country back to the forefront on a global stage, has protected democracy around the world and here at home, and has benefited the vast majority of Americans, lower class, middle class Americans through some historic, historic legislation.
And when you compare what you saw from Joe Biden last night to what you saw from Donald Trump, you realize that this is a choice ultimately in November of someone who is a decent, honest man of integrity who has served his country his entire life against a felon who is an inveterate liar and only cares about himself.
And so, yes, the New York Times is correct. The stakes are very high. But let's not go with this double standard where we just normalize Donald Trump's absurd behavior and absolute outrageous lies of denying January 6th, his refusal to accept the results of the election, his pride at overturning Roe v. Wade and taking reproductive freedom away.
That is what the choice is. That's who we're dealing with here. And ultimately, it's convenient for the New York Times to say, oh, Joe Biden should step down. Why aren't they saying that Donald Trump should step down? They're just always apologizing and normalizing for Donald Trump.
And, frankly, Anderson, that's what happened last night on the debate stage. Nobody fact-checked Donald Trump when he was blatantly lying over and over and over again.
Which was met by Cooper asking Goldman if he was "concerned" that Biden wasn't able to keep up with Trump's "Gish gallop," a term he should have used, but didn't, for the amount of pure, unadulterated bullshit Trump spewed during the so-called debate into the biosphere of the American public, and once again, Goldman laid out the stakes perfectly, and explained the very clear difference between Biden's team, and who he is surrounding himself with, and the team of frightening extremists that Trump plans on bringing into his administration.
GOLDMAN: No, it doesn't concern me. I mean, look at the state of the union, right? It was the exact opposite. Look at how he was today on the campaign trail in North Carolina. He had an off night. He had an off night. People have an off night and he's older than, than most. For sure, you're going to have some off nights. But let's remember the job of the president is not to respond instantaneously in a debate. You are governing the country. You are making critical, important decisions, getting information from the staff that you hire, the administration that you build, and you're using all of that information to make decisions and to pass legislation and to defend our democracy.
And that is what Joe Biden has done so well, surrounding himself with outstanding staff members. 40 of 44 of Donald Trump's senior staff members will not endorse him. They worked for him and they refused to endorse him. And what he will hire will be political hacks, extremists who will bring our country down. And that's the critical difference here.
The fact that the media isn't already explaining that to the American public every single day right now is infuriating.
After being asked whether there should be another debate or not, Goldman said there should, but knocked CNN right upside their heads for what they allowed with this one and for Trump to get away with.
GOLDMAN: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think Joe Biden had an off night. It was a poor performance. There's no question about it. And no one is saying anything different. But let's have another debate. Let's see what happens on a different night. Let's see whether, you know, Donald Trump continues to lie over and over, to deny his role in January six, to proudly say that he increased the deficit more than any other president by reducing taxes on the super wealthy.
He is blatantly mischaracterizing the disaster that was his presidency, and that got a lot of attention and didn't get a lot of pushback. But let's have another debate where actually the moderators will push back on Donald Trump's lies. He intimidated your network, unfortunately, and there was no pushback.
He was given free reign to just lie as much as he wants, and that's not helpful to the American public either.
Cooper tried to distance himself from that decision, and I don't blame him. It ought to be career ending for Bash and Tapper, who apparently both are more worried about keeping their jobs during a Trump fascist regime than whether we've still got a functioning democracy left in the United States if he manages to get back into the White House.
Shame on both of them for failing the country during a time when it matters most and for failing to fact check his deluge of lies during their network's debacle this week. History won't be kind to either of them.
