Newt Gingrich Body Slams CBS Reporter Scott Pelley

Newt Gingrich Body Slams CBS Reporter Scott Pelley


I Thought This Was a Debate Among The Candidates!



By Dell Hill
H/T - Ed Morrissey

The highlight of tonight’s presidential candidates debate, hosted by CBS, looked more like the final seconds of a world championship WWF match.

Veteran CBS reporter, Scott Pelley, decided to engage Newt Gingrich with a question concerning the rule of law when American citizens become involved in aggressive, war-like activity against their own country.

Ed Morrissey has our report.

“I missed tonight’s CBS debate, mainly because I spent a great evening with some of my blogging friends here at FreedomWorks’ BlogCon2011.  When I returned, though, I got a few messages about one particular moment in the debate, where CBS moderator attempted to lecture Newt Gingrich on the “rule of law” regarding American citizens who join the enemy to wage war against the US.  Big mistake.



The two worst aspects of this exchange?  The smug look on Pelley’s face when he challenged Gingrich on this point, and the “no” you can hear him utter just as Gingrich started his smackdown of Pelley.  Regardless of the context of this exchange, this is a perfect encapsulation of why these media debates are utterly worthless, and why the Republican Party needs to force a format change.  Pelley isn’t running for President, and we don’t need to have Pelley debating the presidential candidates.  We need them to debate each other.  It’s only made more ridiculous when a moderator-turned-participant ends up as far out of his depth as Pelley was on this question.”

Amen, Ed, Amen!!