CNN’s Tapper, Bash and King Defend Manu Raju Against Martha McSally’s Attack: ‘That Was a Ploy’

Manu Raju’s CNN colleagues rallied to his support on Thursday after Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ) snapped at him for asking a straightforward question about President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

McSally has been creamed by political watchers who disapproved of how she called Raju a “liberal hack” for asking if she would vote to consider new evidence in the Senate’s impeachment trial. The question is highly relevant now that Trump’s articles of impeachment are in the Senate’s hands, so Jake Tapper panned McSally for her name-calling.

“He was just asking the question of the day!” Tapper exclaimed. Dana Bash could be heard reacting to McSally with “oh my God” in the background, and Tapper continued by defending Raju’s journalistic professionalism.

Nia-Malika Henderson assessed that McSally wants to attack the media because she’s “under the gun” and facing a tough re-election. John King was asked about how McSally doubled down on the name-calling by tweeting out her own version of the video, and he said its probably part of her strategy because “she can’t win without the Trump base. She can’t.”

“If she abandoned the Trump base and the president turns on her, she is done,” he said. “McSally could have had a very easy answer…Instead, she attacks, she made her decision, sticking with the president here.”

Bash got in by calling it an “incredibly telling moment” from McSally while panning her for not having more grace under pressure.

“Come on, really?…I’m not being defensive of him because he’s my colleague, but there is nobody who looks at him with a real objective lens and sees anything but objectivity. That was a ploy and a play and it was unnecessary.”

Watch above, via CNN.