Liberals blast CBS News over hiring Mick Mulvaney as contributor: 'Pathetic and despicable'
'Pathetic and despicable,' one journalist said
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Political commentators, journalists and more slammed CBS News after they announced they hired former Trump chief of staff and envoy to Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney as a contributor.
Eric Feigl Ding, an epidemiologist and co-founder of the World Health Network, said he was going to "boycott" CBS and tagged Susan Zirinsky, former CBS News president and CEO, asking her what she was thinking. He also said, "read the room."
"Tell me you're unserious about journalism without telling me you're unserious about journalism," Miranda Yaver, a professor at Oberlin, tweeted in response to the news.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - In this Oct. 17, 2019 file photo, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney speaks in the White House briefing room in Washington. House impeachment investigators have asked Mulvaney to testify about his "first-hand knowledge" of President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Marcus Baram, a senior editor at Fast Company, tweeted that he hoped CBS had their fact-checkers on standby.
Podcast host and former political reporter Sam Youngman called the move "disgraceful."
Others pointed to Mulvaney's appearance at a 2019 press conference, where he indicated that there was quid pro quo with regard to former president Donald Trump withholding aid to Ukraine to leverage Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into helping an investigation of possible Ukrainian involvement with Democrats during the 2016 election.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mick Mulvaney attended both Georgetown University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Reuters/Jim Bourg)
Mulvaney argued his words were taken out of context when ABC's Jonathon Karl ask about the possible link, and the former Trump official said "we do that all the time with foreign policy."
He issued a statement later that said, "there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) advisor Kurt Bardella said, "the man who executed the order to withhold aid from Ukraine so his boss could try and extort President Zelensky has been rewarded with a network TV deal by a so-called news organization. Democracy doesn’t die in darkness. It dies because of sh-- like this."
President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Nancy Lee Grahn, an actress, said "there were plenty of experts" CBS could have brought on. "Way to bring the former cess pool to your network & rub your audiences noses in it," she continued.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Salon writer and political commentator Bob Cesca said CBS was "normalizing these villains." "You mean there's no one else who's capable of talking about this crap, CBS?" he continued.
Legal affairs editor at Condé Nast Luke Zaleski said the hiring decision was "equal parts pathetic and despicable."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"After Trump shakedown of Zelensky, Mulvaney said ‘Get over it,'" Mark Mazzetti, an investigative correspondent at the New York Times, said.
Mulvaney resigned from the Trump administration in 2021 following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, just weeks before President Biden was set to take over the White House.