CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson Labels Haley Stevens 'Sore Loser' and ' Irrelevant'

On Sunday, the political landscape of the Michigan Senate race was rocked, as MI Democrat Congresswoman Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers, over the man she lost to in the Democrat Senate primary, Abdul El-Sayed, and as has been prevuously documented, the media lost their minds over it. Over on CNN, accusations flew against Stevens, whose motives were questioned, and who was labeled a sore loser and irrelevant, among other things.

The endorsement comes on the heels of a change of plans for Stevens, who was supposed to campaign with El-Sayed on Sunday, but was asked to stay away by El-Sayed, after she demanded he denounce an anti-Israel ad put out by Rebellion PAC, founded by Cenk Uygur, the uncle of his campaign surrogate and streamer Hasan Piker.

Immediately following live coverage of the Rogers/Stevens press conference, CNN's Newsroom took over and host Fredricka Whitfield gave some background, and then brought on their political analyst and Bloomberg columnist Nia-Malika Henderson, who immediately sought to downplay the significance of what had just happened. 

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HENDERSON: In the end, I don't actually think this will matter very much. What I'm hearing is that Haley Stevens sort of approach to this is actually backfiring, right? It's actually making people question her, question her commitment to a Democratic senate question, her commitment to Democratic party values.

She then tried to turn the issue of hate against Stevens and Rogers, while making El-Sayed a victim, something Whitfield would reinforce.

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HENDERSON: And you had Mike Rogers there also talking about the hate that's being spread. Well, Mike Rogers, what about the President spreading Islamophobia and suggesting that that El-Sayed is a dangerous figure.

WHITFIELD: And that question was asked to Haley Stevens. Wait a minute. I mean, El-Sayed has has had the incoming of Islamophobia. And, you know, here you are talking about ending the hate.

She then painted Stevens as bitter, over not be allowed to campaign with El-Sayed, and set Henderson up with a softball toss to back up her theory.

WHITFIELD: Does this not come across more as, well I'm disappointed that I'm not on the stage or part of the campaigning, and so I'm getting back at you. I'm no longer happy, you know, with with supporting you. And this is like revenge. I mean, am I, am I truncating it down to, you know, just minuscule, you know, matters here or is that significant?

HENDERSON: Oh that's significant. The phrase sore loser comes to mind. 

And Henderson was just getting warmed up, about to hit Stevens in as many ways as she could.

HENDERSON: You know, watching the press conference, it just seemed like sort of sudden rash and emotional, right? That's so, so very reactive to, to everything that was happening. You know, I don't think she's thinking very clearly about her future in the Democratic party. Maybe she doesn't have a future in the Democratic party at this point, but Democratic leaders have been talking to her, saying sort of stand down from this. It's a very lonely road that she's on. 

And I don't think it makes much sense outside of the context that you just mentioned, right? That it was a tough contest, that she basically is having problems dealing with the reality that she lost that primary and that she is not going to be a senator, that possibly somebody else who challenged her is going to be a senator in all likelihood. 

And then Henderson attempted to go out with a left wing bang.

HENDERSON: And again, I just don't think average voters are going to say, oh, look at what Haley Stevens is doing, and now they're going to do the same thing. She, I think, is always imagined herself as being able to sort of deliver and represent a bloc of voters, Jewish voters, as well as black voters. I don't think she represents those bloc of voters as much as she thinks that she does. I think in so many ways, Haley Stevens is irrelevant. She just doesn't quite know it yet.

Despite the fact that Stevens received over 727,000 votes in the Senate primary, and lost to El-Sayed by about only one percent, Whitfield gladly accepted Henderson's baseless opinion, managing a pathetic response of, "Mmm, oh, okay." She should have added, this is CNN!