Despite the White House’s repeated insistence that “democracy” itself was on the 2022 midterms ballot, CNN anchor Dana Bash noted at the beginning of her network’s Election Night coverage that it wasn’t even a top-five issue for voters.
Bash was part of a Tuesday evening panel — which included fellow anchors Jake Tapper, Abby Phillip, Chris Wallace and Kasie Hunt — and they began their coverage of the election with a conversation about last minute poll data and exit polls just as polling locations began to close across the country.
WATCH:
"You know what's missing from this one, two, three, four, five, top five issues? Democracy."
"Oh, yeah."
"It's not even in here." pic.twitter.com/iFCdOWyhgB
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 8, 2022
“The numbers in these exits do not line up with what we were seeing in the polling data going into this election about what people cared about and the order in which they ranked it,” Hunt began. “So we have had a lot of questions throughout this time about new voters, people that hadn’t been in there before that were perhaps not getting captured by the polling. So maybe this is a sign that we’re going to see a little bit more of that than we expected. We obviously don’t know yet.”
“And you know what’s missing from these one, two, three, four, five, top five issues?” Bash asked before answering her own question: “Democracy.”
“Oh, yeah,” Tapper agreed.
“It’s not even in here,” Bash continued, adding, “That’s not to say that it’s not an issue for people, but it doesn’t even come close.”
“It’s not the issue,” Tapper added.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly insisted that “Democracy is on the ballot,” saying, “The remarkable thing about American democracy is this: Just enough of us on just enough occasions have chosen not to dismantle democracy, but to preserve democracy. We must choose that path again.”
Democracy is on the ballot. pic.twitter.com/f327esxgnZ
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 3, 2022
Biden was not the only one, either. “The View” host Joy Behar even went so far as to suggest that Americans whose primary concerns were inflation and the economy were just not smart enough to understand that if they voted to save the economy they could lose democracy.
“As I always say, inflation fluctuates. Democracy does not. And so, we need to know that. I don’t want to make a speech, I’m just saying, I feel like people are not comprehending the seriousness of what is going on,” she said.