Could you ever imagine Audie Cornish casually referring to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson as “John” and “Mike?” Rhetorical question.
Yet on today’s edition of CNN This Morning, Cornish spoke of “Kamala” and “Jasmine.” Not surprising on the part of former NPR host Cornish when speaking of her fellow liberals! Cornish’s name drops came in the context of a discussion of the popcorn-worthy infighting in the Texas Democrat primary for the Senate nomination.
Cornish got the conversation off to a confusing start, saying it was Colin Allred who had said he had expected to be in a primary race not against a “mediocre black man, but an intelligent black woman.”
Cornish got things wrong on two fronts. First, it was Democrat primary candidate James Talarico who allegedly made the remarks, and even then Cornish garbled them. Talarico supposedly said that he expected to face in the primary “a mediocre black man,” referring to Allred, and “not a formidable and intelligent black woman,” meaning Jasmine Crockett — not the other way around.
After Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Illinois) corrected her, Cornish dropped her first name:
“I wondered when I watched this conversation play out if it also reflected the tension in the party over the role of black women and black men, which we saw surface with Kamala’s loss and which we heard a lot because of black men in some quarters moving to Trump.”
“Kamala” — how cozy!
Later, speaking of Republicans donating to Crockett’s race, Cornish said:
“There’s a conversation being had that says there is Republican interest in having Jasmine run, Jasmine Crockett, run for Texas because they don’t think she can win.”
After going first name again, Cornish caught herself and pronounced Crockett’s full name. But the Jasmine was already out of the bag.
While stopping short of explicitly endorsing Crockett over Talarico, Underwood left absolutely no doubt that she supports her fellow congresswoman. Underwood lavishly praised Crockett, saying she is “Formidable. She has been an excellent representative and member of the Democratic caucus. We are sad that she’s choosing to leave us, quite frankly, because she is a very strong voice for our party,” later adding that Crockett is “crushing it.”
There is good reason for skepticism regarding the allegation by Morgan Thompson, a black political TikTok personality, that Talarico made the invidious comparison ascribed to him between Allred and Crockett. As Jeff Charles has written at Townhall:
“If it sounds like I suspect [Thompson] might have concocted the whole narrative, that’s because it’s exactly what I believe. She claims the conversation happened on January 12 — why did she wait until now to say something? Moreover, Talarico has actually supported Allred in the past. He does not have a history of making racist remarks nor does he seem stupid enough to tell a black woman that another black person is a ‘mediocre black man.’”
But Underwood credulously embraced Thompson’s allegation, and proceeded to accuse Talarico of being “disrespectful to our elected leaders,” and not “present[ing] [himself] fully and authentically.” Underwood dished out a backhanded compliment to Talarico, calling him “very smooth and eloquent. Very, very smooth.”
Here’s the transcript.
CNN This Morning
2/5/26
6:55 am ETAUDIE CORNISH: I want to turn to something else, because we’ve got some congressional lawmakers doing some infighting down in Texas, and this has been all over social media.
These reports about Colin Allred basically being, how can we describe this, reports that he had made comments complaining that he thought he’d be in a race not against a mediocre black man, but an intelligent black woman speaking highly of Jasmine Crockett.
LAUREN UNDERWOOD: Talarico.
CORNISH: Talarico. I wondered when I watched this conversation play out if it also reflected the tension in the party over the role of black women and black men, which we saw surface with Kamala’s loss, and which we heard a lot because of black men in some quarters moving to Trump.
UNDERWOOD: Well, in three weeks, folks in Texas are going to be going out to vote. They have a very important Democratic primary. And in the context of Democratic primaries, black voters hold a lot of power. And we are really setting the agenda and we take great pride in picking our nominees as Democrats.
And so when we see candidates who are disrespectful to our elected leaders, when we see candidates who maybe step a little bit over their skis in their assertions, when we see candidates who maybe don’t present themselves fully and authentically, we take notice! And I think that black voters are very sophisticated electorate and we’ll be heading out to the polls in Texas and all across the country as these primaries begin.
CORNISH: There’s also been this kind of conversation around Crockett herself. I remember the comedian Bowen Yang kind of catching a lot of flak for saying that people should not donate to her. But then there’s all this reporting about who is.
And I want to mention some of the people who have been listed. Marc Andreessen, the Winklevoss twins, Brian Armstrong. There’s a conversation being had that says there’s Republican interest in having Jasmine run, Jasmine Crockett run for Texas, because they don’t think she can win. And that they are taking a page from Democrats’ books during the sort of Trump era of pushing more Trumpy, quote unquote, extreme candidates that they don’t think can win. Is that what you think is happening here?
UNDERWOODD: Well, Republicans have underestimated Congresswoman Crockett from the beginning, and we know that they were gloating when she stepped into the Senate race, thinking that she wouldn’t even be competitive in a Democratic primary. And now she is head to head with Mr. Talarico.
And so I think that Jasmine is formidable. She has been an excellent representative and member of the Democratic caucus. We are sad that she’s choosing to leave us, quite frankly, because she is a very strong voice for our party. And I think that whoever wins that primary, Texas is in play in 2026. And the Republicans are scared because of the weakness of their own nominees or their own candidates.
CORNISH [turning to other panelists]: Is Texas in play for 2026, reporters?
STEPHEN COLLINSON: You know, we hear this every single cycle, that Texas could be in play in ’26. There have been some races where Democrats have had good candidates where they’ve come close. I think a lot of people are still a little skeptical, but of course it depends on the candidate in the Republican race.
UNDERWOOD: I mean, have you seen Donald Trump’s numbers? Nobody likes Mr. Cornyn. You know, you’ve got Paxton and his scandals, and Wesley Hunt is just in the fight.
And so no matter who it is that the Texas Republicans decide to nominate, those guys are going to be bruised and battered. And then we have Congresswoman Crockett, who is crushing it. We have Mr. Talarico, who likes to say, oh, he’s very smooth and very eloquent.
CORNISH: Social media sophisticated.
UNDERWOOD: Yes, very, very smooth.
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