Scandal-plagued Democrat Senate nominee Cal Cunningham held what his campaign described as a Zoom press conference earlier today to discuss his Republican opponent Sen. Thom Tillis’s supposed “failures” on the Wuhan Coronavirus relief bill.
It didn’t go well.
Instead of first addressing the affair scandals that have consumed his campaign since the start of October, Cunningham spent the first 30-35 minutes talking about North Carolina needing additional Wuhan virus funding and how Tillis had allegedly failed to deliver help for local residents who need it.
He and a campaign staffer (who was not seen on camera) “interviewed” local constituents and community leaders who talked about how they were struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic. At no point did you see anyone on camera other than Cunningham, even when other people were talking, which was very odd and at times awkward. It came off as a hastily arranged and scripted campaign event, obviously designed to distract from the questions he’s been dodging for the last week.
It came off that way because that’s exactly what it was. In fact, once Cunningham was done “interviewing” local supporters, the off-camera staffer quickly announced they were “running out of time” and could only take 10 minutes of questions from the media.
Not a single reporter asked about Coronavirus relief funding. The all got straight to the point, with the first two (predictably) openly apologizing and lamenting about the fact they even had to ask the question:
But after that, reporters who actually were interested in getting answers from Cunningham went after him like pit bulls while Cunningham kept giving scripted answers about how he had “taken responsibility for the hurt that I’ve caused in my personal life”:
Watch below as questions are asked about if there are other women out there, and how Cunningham dodges:
You could really tell close to the end of it that the reporters felt agitated and used as props for his campaign. Travis Fain from Ralegh-based-WRAL summed up the call:
The national media, who outside of the AP have been largely silent on this story, are finally paying closer attention to this race, too:
I’ve followed the North Carolina political press corps and their reporting for a good decade or so, and I can tell you that it takes a lot for a Democrat to get on their bad side. He did that today, which was not a smart move on his campaign’s part going into the home stretch of the race.
In any event, the following questions remain unanswered:
I think the fact that he hasn’t denied any of the allegations against him to date speaks volumes as to what the answer is to the yes or no questions being asked of him. Much like the Biden-Harris campaign’s refusal to answer whether or not they’d pack the Supreme Court, it’s what Cunningham is not telling us that is most revealing about the real Cal Cunningham.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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