[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]
CNN's Dana Bash paid tribute to retiring Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski on the 14 December 2016 edition of New Day, touting that "it's the end of the Obama and the Mikulski eras; and the trail-blazing senator walked out the door — dropping important pearls of wisdom." Bash played up how the longtime Maryland politician is "retiring disappointed. Her old Senate colleague [Hillary Clinton] failed to become the first female president." She later underlined that "it's not just Mikulski's feminism that makes Clinton's defeat so crushing. It's that that her own Democratic Party lost touch with...working-class voters."
Anchor Chris Cuomo introduced Bash's report by spotlighting "the end of an era — trail-blazing Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who has served longer than any woman in the history of Congress, is going to call it a career." The "trail-blazing" or "trail-blazer" term appeared three times during the segment, as well as part of an on-screen graphic: "Trailblazing Senator Mikulski Saying Goodbye." However, former Republican Senators Nancy Kasselbaum Baker and Paula Hawkins actually preceded Mikulski as the first women elected to the U.S. Senate without some sort of family connection.