Showing once again that the journalists and media analysts on MSNBC can live in a different world, the network on Tuesday hosted a conversation about the “moderate,” “middle-of-the-road” candidates in the 2020 Democratic field. After Chris Jansing fretted about whether the overall Democratic field could defeat Donald Trump, guest Michael Starr Hopkins offered this opinion: “Pete Buttigieg is someone who is a moderate but has little experience when it comes to actually governing.”



Buttigieg, the man who wants to radically pack the Supreme Court and favors abortion at every level is a moderate? MSNBC host Chris Jansing then turned to New York Times editorial board contributor Mara Gay, saying, “Speaking of sort of those middle-of-the-road candidates, Mara, your paper is reporting that they're following Amy Klobuchar's campaign.”

Jansing then lumped in another so-called moderate, asking of Gay: “Are these two legit challengers to Joe Biden's down the middle-of-the-road candidacy or is that wishful thinking on the part of their supporters?”

Now, Biden is a moderate? His lifetime American Conservative Union score is 12 and the Democrat has drifted farther left as the years went by. His 2008, 2007 and 2006 scores are, respectively: 0, 0, 4. As for Klobuchar, her lifetime score is 4.70. These are the “moderates” in the Democratic field, according to MSNBC anyway.

In July, CBS This Morning highlighted mysterious “more moderate” 2020 Democrats for the second presidential debate. But the show’s hosts didn’t identify who they might be. In September, the same program hailed Buttigieg’s “moderate” health care plan as “pretty good.” Moderate apparently means not Bernie Sanders-style socialist.

A partial transcript of the segment is below: