It's been no secret that Democrats had boosted certain Republican candidates in primaries, believing they'd be easier to beat come November. This is especially true with how the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) boosted John Gibbs, who ultimately won the Republican primary early last month in Michigan's 3rd Congressional District against Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the 10 Republicans who voted for impeachment articles against then President Donald Trump.
The DCCC and its chairman, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) have not only defended this move, because again, Gibbs is considered easier to beat than Meijer would be, they've been deceptive in their tactics about it, especially after the fact. Earlier this week, though, CNN's Jake Tapper called them out for it.
As the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) SuperPAC highlighted, Tapper appeared less than pleased with the DCCC's move during Tuesday's episode of "The Lead."
"We should note last Wednesday, we did a segment here on "The Lead" about John Gibbs and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took part of our segment and they've been running an edited version on Twitter. They posted the part where I noted Gibbs previous opposition to women voting, but somehow they cut out the part where I noted that the DCCC has contributed to the Gibbs campaign by funding almost a half million dollars worth of ads promoting him," the host explained.
Tapper played the ad in question on air, and, after doing so, made clear "we just wanted to set the record straight since apparently the DCCC cannot be counted on to do so."
Truly disgusting stuff from #MI03 Republican @votejohngibbs ? pic.twitter.com/9nQ2OhnN4u
— DCCC (@dccc) September 22, 2022
"Get this, a congressional candidate supported by Donald Trump, by the way, whose past writings and associations indicate that he is against women voting. We’re talking about John Gibbs. You might remember him because with some financial support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, with ads that thought he would be an easier candidate to beat," Tapper had said during last Wednesday's episode.
The show then segued into a segment discussing the race and the move from the DCCC, during which Jonah Goldberg and David Corn of Mother Jones joined in.
At the beginning of the segment, Tapper pointed out that "it's entirely possible Gibbs could win," to which Goldberg replied "absolutely."
Such a suggestion from Gibbs came from a blog post he wrote about women's voting rights and women in the workplace while attending Stanford University.
Gibbs clarified in a statement shared to Twitter in which he mentioned he "made a website to provoke the left on campus and to draw attention to the hypocrisy of some modern-day feminists. It was nothing more than a college kid being over the top to get a reaction." He also went on to say "Of course I believe that women should vote and work. My own mother worked for thirty-three years for the Michigan Department of Transportation, and it was her hard work and love that allowed me to be the first in my family to graduate from college."
My Statement on the CNN Attack Article: pic.twitter.com/tbKCguqWyG
— John Gibbs for MI-03 (@votejohngibbs) September 22, 2022
Tapper had also tweeted out a statement from Rep. Meijer criticizing the DCCC back on July 25, just before he lost his primary.
2/ “It is the pinnacle of hypocrisy to on the one hand make the case before the American people that Trump and the big lie are an existential threat to Democracy while at the same time spending millions of dollars promoting the very candidates and ideas….
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 25, 2022
3/ “…that animate the most dishonest elements of the Trump movement and led to violence on January 6th.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 25, 2022
Forecasters consider the race between Gibbs and Democratic nominee Hillary Scholten to be "Lean Democratic" or "Tilt Democratic," meaning it's certainly not a foregone conclusion that Scholten will win this race. Decision Desk HQ actually considers it to be a "Toss-Up," and gives Gibbs a 61.5 percent chance of winning to Scholten's 38.5 percent.
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