Fox News host Trace Gallagher asked ex-spokeswoman Obama-turned-Joe Biden surrogate Zach Friend if it was “very confusing” when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Sen. Bernie Sanders nominated during her speech for Democratic National Convention
Gallagher played a clip by Ocasio-Cortez that secondary Sanders’ nomination during her speech on Tuesday, which is a lengthy procedural tradition. However, many were left unfamiliar and NBC News was criticized by Ocasio-Cortez when it tweeted that they “did not approve of Joe Biden.”
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‘I know it was symbolic, Zach, … this nomination of Bernie Sanders, but it was also very confusing. “NBC News was confused, they tweeted a big headline,” Gallagher said. “This may not, Zach, be the message the Biden campaign is hoping for.”
Friend acknowledged that the procedural moment could have confused some people, but added that it was “not without prior notice,” noting that Republicans did exactly the same thing. The former Obama spokesman then spun the situation into a positive one for the Biden campaign.
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“I actually think it was a good thing that the Biden camp recognized early on the need to work with sen. Sanders and his team, we got some votes in the base and gave them a chance not to just talk at the convention, but also their delegates cast their vote, ”said Friend.
“The DNC specifically asked Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez to do this, so procedurally it is, um, actually what it was meant to be and a good show of unity to give her and others the opportunity to say these things,” he added.
Gallagher countered that the party could have provided more “clarity” before Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks – in which she did not name Biden – so viewers were not confused about her support.
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NBC News eventually dismissed the misleading tweet and added a note from an editor explaining the situation, but Ocasio-Cortez was not happy.
“You waited several hours to correct your obvious and blatantly misleading tweet,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in a retweet of NBC’s clarification that appeared about three hours after the first message. ‘It caused an enormous amount of hatred and vitriol, and now the mischief you have created is circulating on other networks.
Fox News’s Dom Calicchio contributed to this report.
