Former governor and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the media “wants to stoke a nonstop Republican civil war” so the Democrats can divide and conquer. CNN hated it. Because it was true. [Hat tip: Joseph Wulfsohn]
Haley argued:
The media playbook starts with the demand that everyone pick sides about Donald Trump —either love or hate everything about him. The moment anyone on the right offers the slightest criticism of the 45th president, the media goes berserk: Republicans are trying to have it both ways! It’s a calculated strategy to pit conservatives against one another. It’s also a ridiculous false choice. Real life is never that simple. Someone can do both good and bad things.
Haley lamented we’re at a point where families and friends polarize over politics:
Is that really what the anti-Trump media wants? Maybe. Hatred and polarization draw attention, ratings and clicks. But what’s good for them is bad for America. Some Never Trump and Always Trump Republicans also attack anyone who doesn’t join the all-or-nothing chorus. That’s not how I saw Mr. Trump conduct himself when I worked with him in the White House, where he engaged in internal debates, welcomed disagreements, and at times changed his mind.
But “If the media gets its way, the GOP will dissolve into endless warfare, ensuring extreme liberal government for years to come. Instead, Republicans need to be honest about what worked and what didn’t over the past four years.”
On Thursday afternoon, CNN Newsroom anchor Brianna Keilar launched into one of those pompous nine-minute jeremiads whipping on Haley and the GOP.
“Haley says the media wants to stoke a Republican civil war,” Keilar declared. “Stoke it how? By telling Americans that it’s happening? What Republicans on either side of this divide are saying? Perhaps there would be no civil war is the media would just stop documenting it?…There is a civil war. The GOP is eating its own. Casting out good people as it kowtows to conspiracy theorists, and the media ignoring that it’s happening won’t make Mitt Romney and Josh Hawley somehow agree on the existential questions facing their party.”
Keilar said Haley’s at war with herself, comparing her stance on taking down the Confederate flag over the state capitol in South Carolina with her support for voter ID laws.
KEILAR: Your party is at a crisis point, Ambassador. You want to keep kicking the can down both sides of the road, ignoring reality until what? You look up and see the walking crowd you’re with dense with white supremacists, dense with cravenly ambitious politicians who jettisoned their morals miles back, several clicks after they left Fiscal Conservative Town and Family Valuesville without so much as a look back. It’s a long road through the wilderness, especially with your eyes closed.
Then Keilar promised viewers they would have negative stories coming up on Ted Cruz and Ron DeSantis “under fire.” Because that’s CNN.