Kasie Hunt, CNN's chief national affairs analyst, has some explaining to do. According to aggrieved liberals on Twitter, at least.
Hunt's offense? Challenging the prevailing narrative that Republicans face a national reckoning following the disastrous California recall election. Instead of concurring with her peers, CNN's newest hire argued in a Twitter thread that Democrats face challenges of their own, including the difficulties Democrats had motivating liberals and moderates to vote until Republican Larry Elder became tied to Donald Trump.
CA GOV BIG PICTURE: One of the top Democrats in the country got caught living like an elite while everyone else suffered. Elites vs. the rest is the driving force in our politics right now and Democrats have a tough needle to thread both in California & nationwide … (1/)
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) September 15, 2021
Republicans not named Trump did learn they had unrealized opportunities with working class voters (including Black and Latino voters) as they watched 2020 returns roll in (3/)
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) September 15, 2021
Obviously California is a Special Place — but the fact that a Democratic national star in waiting *faced* a recall and then had to fight hard for it midway through the campaign does say a lot about the potential challenges Democrats face across the map (4/)
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) September 15, 2021
…especially if President Biden can't demonstrate he's capable of getting the resurgent pandemic under control, has another competence crisis a la Afghanistan, can't get his budget plan through Congress, etc. (fin)
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) September 15, 2021
Hunt's comments were quickly ratioed as prominent lefties appeared irked that CNN's chief national affairs analyst didn't toe the company line.
Hunt's former MSNBC colleague Malcolm Nance didn't appreciate her analysis.
Oh this is just plain old stupid. https://t.co/BiPgLGefZJ
— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) September 15, 2021
Others were quick to pile on.
In which CNN's Chief National Affairs Analyst gets reporting and opinion confused to a truly gobsmacking degree. https://t.co/psy7SEac3l
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) September 15, 2021
"Elites vs. the rest?" Explain how the extremely wealthy Loudoun County lead the manufactured CRT crisis & attacked schools? Or how middle class & wealthy folks were part of the Jan 6th insurrection? Or how those who made under 50K voted for Biden? This is a terrible analysis. https://t.co/QxCsuZ9LKF
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) September 15, 2021
He faced a recall because it's ridiculously easy to start a recall in California. He won in a landslide that probably won't reflect much erosion from his last election, if any. This analysis seems to be ignoring these very salient points
— John Legend (@johnlegend) September 15, 2021
According to the Pew Research Center, Twitter users are by 16 points more likely to identify as Democrats than all U.S. adults.