CNN’s Softballs for Joe

CNN’s town hall with Joe Biden on Thursday should put any doubts to rest: The network is all in for Joe. Even Christopher Cadelago of leftleaning Politico called it a “kid-gloves” affair, in stark contrast to ABC’s “brutal town hall” for President Trump two days before, which gave the prez “few such comfortable moments.”

Indeed: It took over an hour into the 75minute event before CNN let a Republican pose a question. In all, 13 of the 16 questioners were Democrats. At ABC’s town hall, only three of the 11 questioners had voted for Trump.

Even the “tough” questions for Biden were sycophantic. “I look out over my Biden sign in my front yard and I see a sea of Trump flags and yard signs,” began one of the Pennsylvanians selected to do something most reporters haven’t been able to do all summer: question the Democratic candidate.

As for the moderators: Trump underwent some grilling not just from the voters but from ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, famously a onetime President Bill Clinton staffer. Biden didn’t face any such interrogation from CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who called Trump a “thug” earlier this summer on air.

Cooper didn’t even bat an eyelash when Biden (after offering up his third different take on mandating masks) claimed Trump was responsible for every single death the coronavirus has caused.

“If the president had done his job, had done his job from the beginning, all the people would still be alive,” Biden declared. “All the people. I’m not making this up, just look at the data. Look at the data.”

There’s no such data, of course. Across the world, no national leader has been able to prevent all coronavirus deaths. (And if anyone’s to get all the blame, it has to be China’s Xi Jinping.)

But Cooper gave Biden no pushback for that nonsense.

Of course, CNN isn’t the only outlet in the tank for Joe. Heck, Twitter’s director of public policy is leaving the company to join Biden’s transition team. But the network sure does less than most to pretend otherwise.

It’s still not clear if CNN chose all on its own to ensure Biden saw mostly softballs or if it agreed after his campaign insisted on having a fix in. But it’s beyond troubling to see such fear in Joe’s camp about exposing Biden to the same challenges that every past presidential nominee has faced.

And however CNN decided to hand Biden a free hourlong campaign ad, it did American voters a disservice.